Gate Guard: "Halt stranger, what is your business here?" Stranger: "I'm just passing by on my way to Marshtown, a drink would suit me well." Gate Guard: "Very well, the pub is straight by this street, move along."
The stranger walked through the city amazed -"What a quiet nice town... oddly quiet, with a guard in every corner...", he entered the pub, which was as quiet as the town...
Bartender: "Hmmm, a stranger, what will ya be havin'?" Stranger: "Your cheapest ale." Bartender: "Hah, some Fire Wine for the smart guy, four gold pieces." Stranger: "Why's this town so calmed and quiet?" Drunken Mercenary: "Who asks?" Stranger: "I'm Colthonir, Knight of Lathander." Drunken Mercenary: "Did you not see the guards in your way here? *hic*, there is one in every corner." Colthonir: "Why is that?" Bartender: "Simple, the king has the town guarded, to keep us under the line." Colthonir: "Any reason?" Bartender: "Look, if you wish to know I'll tell ya, but it's not your problem man." Colthonir: "Perhaps I can be of assistance." Bartender: "Hah, alright then, this is what happened:
About two years ago, this man came to town, a powerful sorcerer looking for power, Murkul be his name, he came here because he learned the rumor that the king owned a powerful spell, which he sought to become more powerful. Murkul is nothing but evil, when he requested the scroll from His Majesty, the access was obviously denied, so he killed the king, many guards died that day, but nothing they could do to stop him, at the end, the surviving guards pledged loyalty to Murkul in fear. Mukrul defiled the treasury and obtained the scroll, known as "Spell Trigger", only a high level sorcerer could use such a crazy spell, it is said that its effect stores three spells, allowing the owner to cast three times as fast, he feels invincible now, and decided to stay as our king; malicious he is, treating us like slaves, I do not know what else he wants from us, but our attempts to overthrow him have failed pitifuly, his power has no match."
Colthonir: "Hmmm, I will look into it." Bartender: "I wish you luck kid, but don't do anything stupid, Murkul spends all day in the castle reading some ancient books or something."
Colthonir made his way to the castle, in an attempt to speak with this Murkul, a guard stopped him at the entrance of the castle -"None can enter without being sumoned by The Master." Colthonir: "Nevertheless, I must speak to him." Guard: "Forget it fool, if you want to pass you'll meet my blade." Colthonir: "Step aside: Great Thunderclap!" -The guard fell to the ground, paralized by the shock
Colthonir walked into the castle, it wasn't big, a side door lead to the Barracks, and the Main Hall was immediately in front of the entrance, there were five armored guards at each side of the hall, surrounding whomever enters.
Murkul: "Who disturbs?" Colthonir: "I am Colthonir, Knight of Lathander." Murkul: "Reason to be here?" Colthonir: "As a servant of good, I will not allow a tyrant to enslave this town." Mukul: "Useless threats, guards, take him away"
The guards draw their weapons, but before they could run against Colthonir, he hit the ground with his fist, as he casted -"Earthquake", all the guards fell to the ground with the powerful shake, the whole city awoke with the tremor, but Murkul, who was sitting on the throne, felt no damage.
Murkul: "So, the little knight has some tricks after all, very well, if you wish to die by me, feel my impressive Spell Trigger: Mordenkainen's Force Missiles!"
A storm of 21 missiles swarmed towards Colthonir, he attempted to cover, but his armor and shield had no effect against the exploding magic balls, who harmed him badly, making him kneel.
The guards stand, passing the effect of the earthquake and ran against Colthonir, decided to kill, but he was already casting another spell...
Cothonir: "The birds stopped singing, the rivers stopped flowing, the stars stopped shining, the wind stopped blowing."
Matter itself contained with energy, as the universe stands still, Time Stop, only Colthonir left to move. With his remaining strengths, he walked towards Murkul, and stabbed his throat with his rapier, and just as the effect faded, Murkul fell dead.
Guard: "What the...?" Colthonir: "The king is dead." Guard: "So, has it ended?" Colthonir: "That depends on you, Lathander has smiled upon you this day, do not waste it.", as he healed himself with a spell. Guard: "But who will rule now?" Colthonir: "That depends on you, today, the city and its people are free."
Then he casted another spell, and vanished...
Bards would make stories of his deeds, but that was surely not the end of him, much more would be heard of Colthonir, the Arcane Knight of Lathander.
This build is made out of several sources, initially from Melissan from Baldur's Gate 2, as an impressive melee that could cast Time Stop and Storm of Vengeance, some references to other Cleric/Wizard builds like Red Mage!! (23 Wizard, 11 Cleric, 6 Fighter) added much tweaks to fit my style. This build has a ridiculous amount of buffs and spells, making it somewhat versatile, as he is a good melee with several offensive spells, although not all very powerful and having especially low DCs.
It is Playable through 1-40, but I think of it as a level 40 build, as it keeps gaining stuff every level and won't work complete until the end. Besides, he gets 20% XP penalty from levels 21-34 and 38-40
Alignment: Any
Dwarf
Abilities: STR 16 (26) DEX 8 CON 16 WIS 14 (18) INT 15 (19) CHA 6
1 Fighter1 - Weapon Focus: Scimitar, Knockdown 2 Cleric1 - Domains: Plant and War 3 Cleric2 - Toughness 4 Cleric3 - INT +1 (16) 5 Cleric4 6 Cleric5 - Extend Spell 7 Cleric6 8 Cleric7 - WIS +1(15) 9 Cleric8 - Empower Spell 10 Cleric9 11 Fighter2 - Blind-Fight 12 Fighter3 - WIS +1(16), Improved Knockdown 13 Fighter4 - Weapon Specialization: Scimitar 14 Cleric10 15 Cleric11 - Maximize Spell 16 Cleric12 - WIS +1 (17) 17 Cleric13 18 Cleric14 - Improved Critical: Scimitar 19 Cleric15 20 Wizard1 - WIS +1 (18) 21 Cleric16 - Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar 22 Wizard2 23 Wizard3 24 Wizard4 - STR +1 (17), Epic Prowess 25 Wizard5 - Great Intelligence I (17) 26 Wizard6 27 Wizard7 - Great Strength I (18) 28 Wizard8 - STR +1 (19) 29 Wizard9 30 Wizard10 - Great Strength II (20), Great Intelligence II (18) 31 Wizard11 32 Wizard12 - STR +1 (21) 33 Wizard13 - Great Strength III (22) 34 Wizard14 35 Wizard15 - Great Intelligence III (19) 36 Wizard16 - STR +1 (23), Great Strentgh IV (24) 37 Wizard17 38 Wizard18 39 Fighter5 - Great Strength V (25) 40 Fighter6 - STR +1 (26), Epic Weapon Specialization: Scimitar
No Armor Skin though, you could change 2 Great STRs for Armor Skin and maybe Silent Spell, although I think Metamagics are enough.
Why no level 9 Cleric Spells!? you're so near to get them Well, the DCs are terrible by any means, so I wouldn't use Implosion, for example, maybe some metamagics could get used but the amount of spellslots gained had to be sacrificed; most buffs are already at max power, and going for level 9 Cleric spells would decrease my STR (allowing Armor Skin though, for 24 STR / 19 WIS) ending with less AB and damage, and this is a meleer even with the high caster levels. Going Cleric 17 would make me lose wizard slots (as I won't give up EWS), of which I want at least to be able to cast Mords and Time Stop, a plausible variant to go Cleric17/Fighter6/Wizard17 anyway. Another option would be a pre-epic BAB of 15, (Fighter 3 / Cleric 16 / Wizard 1 or so, ending Cleric 18 / Fighter 4 / Wizard 18), but I want to have 4 APR without Divine Power, as I don't trust it that much because of its short duration.
Body Enhancements: +120 HP Empowered Endurance +80 HP Aura of Vitality +16 HP Divine Power +18-108 HP Tenser's Transformation Haste Negative Energy Protection Freedom of Movement Shadow Shield Protection from spells Spell Mantle Premonition Improved Invisibility Death Armor Elemental Shield Mestil's Acid Sheath True Seeing Spell Resistance (28) Regenerate Energy Buffer
And that only if I didn't missed anything...
Comments, critics, improvements.
Switched two feats. Moved around the Class-levels and feats to make the build legal.Grim
Edited By Grimnir77 on 07/06/06 22:02
Oh, it seems playable indeed. But where to get the quickslots you need from? better get your fingers trained for that numpad.
You got 26 BAB, decrease it by 1 and exploit divine power. You'll lose 1 AB on all your attacks, except the lowest one which will become equal to the highest one. Getting 26 in STR in this guy is also impressive, really. Nice build, though I doubt it's a powerhouse. Cool concept too.
Rock on Thax. _________________ I see the fear you have inside, you can run but never hide. I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb.
I run the Pre-Epic Builders guild. Join and share your experience.
This is one of the better Cleric/Wizards I've seen. I'm impressed that you managed a 26 strength. I've tried a cleric/wizard a couple of times but I always ran into trouble with the int, wis and dex or str reqs. This version balances them nicely. But Lathander?!? Why not Azuth or Dugmaren?
Don't you need a martial weapon proficiency to use a rapier?
Also no still spell? I would drop maximize for it. That way you could use armor. Time stop doesn't have a somatic component so you wouldn't need to still it. _________________ Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.
...I want to have 4 APR without Divine Power, as I don't trust it that much because of its short duration.
Oh, yee of little FAITH!! I once believed this same "logic" (as can be testified by a few of my cleric builds), but I have seen the light!
Oh, and the duration is nice extended.
Quote: Don't you need a martial weapon proficiency to use a rapier?
Uh, nice pointing Mith, I didn't noticed I wrote it like that, so... let's say, Grim, could you change Weapon Focus to level 10 and Knockdown to level 3? that way Fighter will give me the proficiency. I had taken Fighter first, but then I prefered the Metamagics and some buffs sooner.
Stilling is something I thought a lot on, since it's most probably nice, but I end using my spells extended, empowered or maximized, there is some in-action tweaking to enforce offensive casting, I guess I just laid it aside and went melee. Taking stilled spell could work well for arcane spellcasting anyway, you can take out maximized or go human (that makes you lose 40 HP of course).
Quote: But Lathander?!? Why not Azuth or Dugmaren?
Truth be told, I'm not experienced enough to know which deity serves best, neither I know all deities, probably not even half of them, so I thought: good cleric goes with Lathander, and don't ask questions.
Quote: You got 26 BAB, decrease it by 1 and exploit divine power. You'll lose 1 AB on all your attacks, except the lowest one which will become equal to the highest one
...I want to have 4 APR without Divine Power, as I don't trust it that much because of its short duration.
Oh, yee of little FAITH!! I once believed this same "logic" (as can be testified by a few of my cleric builds), but I have seen the light!
I'll make a variant later, but I'm not into casting Divine Power all the time, my slots are not infinite, 32 rounds ain't that much, this works better for epic clerics.
Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 07/06/06 21:28
Start with a level of fighter, and you'll solve your Rapier problem. Go with scimitar to get use for the keen edge spell.
As for DP, now your 4th attack is at -15 and will hit nada anyway. DP makes it useful. you get another highly useful attack with it. _________________ Dragonlance ROH is back, better than before! and I spend a little time here WoG
Argh, how stupid, I'll PM you the changes.
first off, i liked the story. gave a nice idea of the character.
second, i like the power you get out of this combo. for all of the balancing and high stats in 3 abilities, you did very well. the only trouble is the xp penalty, but it can't be helped unless you got cleric 17 wizard 17 as you mentioned as an alternative and then you would lose ab like no ones business, really enforcing the reliance on divine power, but also simultaneously making even better use of it.
third, i have a slight modification suggestion. i noticed that you gain 15 cleric just before getting 18 wis. you could switch the order of the first wizard and the 15th cleric to prevent that. it makes no real difference on the build, except that it prevents that one level without any improvement on spellcasting. that and it kinda bugs me.
fourth...
Quote: Posted 07/06/06 21:25:39 (GMT) -- Thaxll'ssyllia ... Stilling is something I thought a lot on, since it's most probably nice, but I end using my spells extended, empowered or maximized, there is some in-action tweaking to enforce offensive casting, I guess I just laid it aside and went melee. ...
what is this in-action tweaking that you mention to be able to use offensive casting? i can understand the few the cleric gets, but what about the wizard spells? how do you cast them in armour in battle without still spell?
this is a nifty idea. i just recently started playing with a spellsword idea, but i couldn't decide between divine or arcane (going arcane for fun). this is something I hadn't even pondered. i might just start another game based on this build.
overall, very nifty.
-cs _________________ "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."
Edited By christian.schnabel on 07/07/06 01:40
Having recently discovered to be a NE Cleric/Mage I cannot not like this build
Well done Thax! Damn, such combos make you wish to have 60 lvls at your disposal, 40 is just not enough to get everything, although here you make a good job of getting what you aimed for.
Rock on
Cheers, Kail _________________ Heavy metal Or no metal at all Whimps and posers Leave the hall!
As they say down South: Sah-WEEET!
Very Nice, Thax - build and story/concept both! As to deities, here's a link -with other useful links-that may be of some assistance (though, Lathander's just fine! - & you squeezed so much in there, a caster with nice str, can melee, & all that spell and meta-magic access from which to pick 'n choose: well done (and cool concept/story, too!!)
As to suggestions: I agree with still spell, as already suggested above, and right in-line with yer cool concept, too And now for that link: Click Here
Edited By TyrTemplar on 07/07/06 20:24
Well, I didn't really noticed I gain the Cleric before the WIS... of course, which such a simple change as switching Wizard to 19 will comppensate it, it has no real use in any case, because 1 Wizard earlier will not give me any real buffs, unless you plan on spamming ultra-low duration level 1 buffs such as true strike, other than that, Cleric gains more HP than Wizard still, good observation, and very valid point, not sure if I will bother a mod for such a little difference...
In-action tweaking refers to: you are already buffed, as you used divine buffs normally and arcane buffs in a previous place with your armor off, if by any means your melee is not working on the given fight (although that would be extreme and you're dead anyway), you can take your armor off (although not on again while in combat) for offensive casting. Yeah, probably not a very wise choice... comes useful against those impossible to hit ACs. I might need to use him and combat in every situation to know if offensive casting is really worth it, remember most of my slots are already taken by the current metamagics, slots is his main problem (other than time buffing of course).
Quote: Well done Thax! Damn, such combos make you wish to have 60 lvls at your disposal, 40 is just not enough to get everything, although here you make a good job of getting what you aimed for.
Perhaps the game could be hacked...... er, of course I won't do that......
I knew I don't know much about deities, but holy crap, tons of 'em I never heard mentioned, I'm so uninformed
Thanks to all for your comments.
Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 07/08/06 04:40
Quote: Posted 07/08/06 04:39:32 (GMT) -- Thaxll'ssyllia ... In-action tweaking refers to: you are already buffed, as you used divine buffs normally and arcane buffs in a previous place with your armor off, if by any means your melee is not working on the given fight (although that would be extreme and you're dead anyway), you can take your armor off (although not on again while in combat) for offensive casting. Yeah, probably not a very wise choice... comes useful against those impossible to hit ACs. ...
i did not know that you could take off armour in the midst of combat. when i tried this recently i could not. is this a PW or mod-specific thing?
i did not know that you could take off armour in the midst of combat. when i tried this recently i could not. is this a PW or mod-specific thing?
-cs
You're right, you can't. _________________ "With Europe liberated, the people of the world turned their attention to that old devil, the United States of America [...] We taught that monster of old the true meaning of freedom." Star Wreck
Blast it, I was sure you could...
Bad news then... er.. take Still Spell... and be happy.
better get your fingers trained for that numpad.
And now for that link: Click Here