His story is (and yes it is contrived to justify the cheese): a wandering hermit, ordained member of a non-cloistered religious order of a nature-god. Wanders the country, protecting the wilds, feeding the poor, healing people and animals. If I finish the build, will be posted as "Nature's Beggar".
Build as it stands here (comments to follow):
Druid(38), Cleric(1), Monk(1) Human Lawful Neutral
Based mostly on GhostNWN's Elementalist Spellcaster
I want this character to play (as best I can manage) PvM and single-player from level 1 to level 40, so versatility is a must. My first NWN character was a druid and I wanted to revisit that class. They can fight a bit, cast a bit and heal a bit, as well as summon a companion and shapechange. Fits the bill quite well.
Comments, in no particular order:
1. OK, monk and cleric are cheese. I couldn't justify to myself that huge WIS bonus without taking some synergy! +WIS to AC was too good to pass up, and taking a level of cleric for increasing my heals and summons was also too tempting. I also wanted to take Zen Archery for a decent AB and needed another class for Martial weapons. Monk also saves me a few skill points for tumble, discipline etc.
On the con side, taking these two levels slows my spell progression a bit (no big problem), but causes me to lose -2 AB (ouch). Perhaps I could have taken Epic Prowess.
2. Took spell focus skills in evocation and conjuration as suggested in the Elementalist.
3. Not entirely sure that I wanted Dragon Shape, but having come that close to 30 WIS, I though it would be worthwhile. And to be honest, I was running out of Epic Feats to use... Taken a bit late though for a playable PvM build. Any thoughts?
4. Poor reflex saves. Perhaps could have taken Epic Reflexes, but I was running out of pre-epic feats for Lightning Reflexes.
5. In comparison to the Elementalist, I took Combat Casting and Improved CC as opposed to auto still spell I-III to enhance playability 1-20.
6. Playing tactics: Stealth when possible, summon allies (probably Dire Wolf companion) and send into the fray. Zen archery to shoot from a distance (mighty + bull's strength for extra damage if possible), stonehold, creeping doom, ice storm and other useful spells to hold and soften up bad guys for combat. If it comes to melee, bears, direbears, elementals and dragons can be a bit tough if they want to be.
Haven't tested this build yet, but thought I could get some feedback anyway.
Edited By ShayneP on 02/19/06 08:57
Your reflex will improve just by shapeshifting, a dragon shift has 38 DEX, (an air elemental also has around 30) along with your dragon knight, double dragon power. It is good feat if you have space to fight with it, really big man, it can get stuck in several "narrow" places. Although in PvM, yeah, you might not get so high level as to be in use.
That brings me back into, if you don't pretend to use dragon shape, then don't start with so much WIS, if you fight unshifted (as elemental shifts are also very good) with a bow you're going to need more DEX, I would recommend more CON too... or you'll be dust with a pair of hits, lowering WIS to 16 wold give you 6 points, pick another 2 from CHA and you can get DEX and CON to 14. Reflex and fortiude improve too... at expense of less will.
I see you're more into spells, but rapid fire and called shot are very good feats when using bows.
Of course Monk is great with any WIS based character, but the cleric? you don't get real cleric spells with just 1 level..... and druid already makes heal.
The only real use I've found in Hellball is that it can be casted while shapeshifted (dragon comes to mind), but even as it sounds thunderously powerful, breaking the damage into 4 different elements make it easy to resist, it doesn't really kills that much.
The companion can be very useful if you heal him, since his AC tends to be low, and it's really strong (I choose the bear). Remember to always have him buffed, there are some cool animal companion buffs, there's one in particular (Awakening?) that doesn't dissolves with time.
Should be good anyway, drud spells may not be as a wizard, but they still kill, you can also get a lot of summoning power using the animal companion and this level 9 spell: elemental swarm, which I find very useful, moreso than the epic spell dragon knight, because of the size, elemental swarm summons an air elemental, when it dies a water elemental automatically substitutes it (even if killed by unsummon), then an earth and then a fire, so, it's really huge HP cover. Too bad you gain less XP while using summons.
Your reflex will improve just by shapeshifting, a dragon shift has 38 DEX, (an air elemental also has around 30)
Good point, and there is always magical gear to be had! I wasn't complaining so much as just commenting on the negatives, and most classes have at least one poor save.
Quote: That brings me back into, if you don't pretend to use dragon shape, then don't start with so much WIS, if you fight unshifted (as elemental shifts are also very good) with a bow you're going to need more DEX, I would recommend more CON too... or you'll be dust with a pair of hits, lowering WIS to 16 wold give you 6 points, pick another 2 from CHA and you can get DEX and CON to 14. Reflex and fortiude improve too... at expense of less will.
I was tossing up about not aiming for DS, and I could afford to drop WIS. Even to 15 would give 8 more points and I could still keep up with the WIS requirements for spells.
OK, apart from the first couple of levels, why DEX for my bow? Is Zen archery not enough? Of course, extra AC and reflex saves won't hurt, but I would like to hear your thinking on this.
Quote: Of course Monk is great with any WIS based character, but the cleric? you don't get real cleric spells with just 1 level..... and druid already makes heal.
I wasn't after Cleric spells, but domain powers to help my Druid spells. Specifically, empowered Healing and more powerful summons earlier.
You have made me think though. I could take Fighter instead, get an extra combat feat and save the one I would have spent on WP: Martial (and get heavy armour to boot if I wanted to use it...
Quote: The only real use I've found in Hellball is that it can be casted while shapeshifted (dragon comes to mind), but even as it sounds thunderously powerful, breaking the damage into 4 different elements make it easy to resist, it doesn't really kills that much.
Yeah, maybe lose Hellball. Keep Greater Ruin and Dragon Knight though. Might aim for some more combat feats earlier and push some non-epic feats into epic levels if I need to. Could even lose a couple of Great WIS too.
Quote: The companion can be very useful if you heal him, since his AC tends to be low, and it's really strong (I choose the bear). Remember to always have him buffed, there are some cool animal companion buffs, there's one in particular (Awakening?) that doesn't dissolves with time.
AC was why I thought Dire Wolf might be a bit better. Fewer hit points and lower damage, but not quite so slow and stupid. That and I always go for the bear and feel like a change!