Hi,

Looking for an effective stealther with HiPS that can spot and kill other sneaks, and or act as a healer/buffer.

Considered something with Bard for the song to boost skills, and extended amplify, and also considering a WM Cleric Rogue build, as the obvious synergy of the high wisdom and spot/listen, and because the GS would be an ideal way of remaining safe.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Notes:

Server is a high magic world with ludicrous high AB weapons (up to +19 in some circumstances), and lots of items with boosts to skills. Rogues and the like can get +40 to hide and MS from items, but there is a helm with +25 to spot and listen, and readily available scrolls of Clairaudience/voyance and amplify (that only last 5 rounds though, and casting from HiPS throws you into sight again, hence the thought of GS)

Is there a way of making a decent spotter with high ac, reasonable AB?

One other consideration would be something like Monk 9 Rogue 13 Cleric 18 or similar, with Epic Dodge tossed in... Anyway, I'll leave it to the experts I dont have any experience with High magic servers but I imagine a Cleric/Rogue/SD build might be good. Certain Race you want to play with? Does your server require that you take more than 1 level of SD? You could go Cleric 26/Rogue 13/SD 1. Undispellable buffs, DEX based with Epic Dodge. The only thing I dont like about that split is you have to wait until very late in the build to take Epic Dodge. If you dont mind the chance of being dispelled you could go Cleric 23/Rogue 16/SD 1 or Cleric 20/Rogue 19/SD 1.
Quote: Posted 02/24/08 17:17 (GMT) -- galelabriel

I dont have any experience with High magic servers but I imagine a Cleric/Rogue/SD build might be good. Certain Race you want to play with?

Elf for keen senses, ideally... extra dex boost is handy too

Quote: Does your server require that you take more than 1 level of SD?

No level limits at all

Quote: You could go Cleric 26/Rogue 13/SD 1. Undispellable buffs, DEX based with Epic Dodge. The only thing I dont like about that split is you have to wait until very late in the build to take Epic Dodge. If you dont mind the chance of being dispelled you could go Cleric 23/Rogue 16/SD 1 or Cleric 20/Rogue 19/SD 1.

Well there is a re-leveller available (Yup would you believe it? ) so can level up and then relevel at the end if need be.

There are also Mord scrolls available for purchase, so effectively it doesn't matter too much if I have less than 25 levels of Cleric. And thanks for the fast reply, btw
Quote: Posted 02/24/08 16:07 (GMT) -- Gordaan Of Garagos

Hi,

Looking for an effective stealther with HiPS that can spot and kill other sneaks, and or act as a healer/buffer.

Considered something with Bard for the song to boost skills, and extended amplify, and also considering a WM Cleric Rogue build, as the obvious synergy of the high wisdom and spot/listen, and because the GS would be an ideal way of remaining safe.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Notes:

Server is a high magic world with ludicrous high AB weapons (up to +19 in some circumstances), and lots of items with boosts to skills. Rogues and the like can get +40 to hide and MS from items, but there is a helm with +25 to spot and listen, and readily available scrolls of Clairaudience/voyance and amplify (that only last 5 rounds though, and casting from HiPS throws you into sight again, hence the thought of GS)

Is there a way of making a decent spotter with high ac, reasonable AB?

One other consideration would be something like Monk 9 Rogue 13 Cleric 18 or similar, with Epic Dodge tossed in... Anyway, I'll leave it to the experts

I'd say something quite the opposite to a cleric, but WM is on the right track. AFAIK, since there are such large bonuses to AB from enchantments (and probably to abilities/damage/skills too) you'll be wanting to rely more upon base boosts to abilities and AB rather than buffs, since they won't all stack.

An RDD or WM should work wonders with the base boosts, in particular a dex-based WM (presumably there are also large damage bonuses on weapons so strength for damage won't be too much of an issue). Assuming this is a PvP server, I'm guessing True Seeing is nerfed or disabled, otherwise your best bet is a caster with that spell (or an item with it available). Knockdown/Disarm etc. may well be basically useless since everyone could have a super-high discipline with such large stat boosts.

If you want uber AC in a high magic server, always go for a monk (or at least that's my policy) that way you can exploit DEX and WIS bonuses wearing robes as well as natural monk AC and an enchantment from your armour. Because of this, I would definately use a monk:

- High AC
- Monk speed (I always like to have either monk speed for cornersneaking or HiPS when using a sneaker)
- Decent spot/listen (assuming you're putting in wisdom)
- High APR (perfect for fully exploiting the high weapon damage, also good for mega-AC bosses - GOOO 20s!) )

Throw in WM for the AB, and something like Fighter or possibly CoT for feats/saves and you should have something decent.

Of course, I'm making a lot of assumptions, and I don't really know enough about the server to provide properly informed advice. Hope this is a help anyway, or at least gives some inspiration!

Kurth Actually, since you mention that you're looking for a good sneaker with Hips that can act as a support build too, you might want to consider the classic cleric 26 monk 9 sdd 5. With heaps of heals and extra buffing spells sotted, it can be a very good support build. Hips/Harm can also be a potent offensive weapon. Maybe a dual kama elf version would be good for your server, if there are decent kamas available. Granted, it has no extra sneak damage, but with trickery domain and those items with stealth bonuses you mentioned, it should be easy to get very high Hide/Ms for spamming Hips. Assuming that True Seeing isn't nerfed on your server, you wouldn't need to worry about Spot, either. Here's a build that's more focused on the killing than support, but it has full ranger spellcasting and scroll access through 25 UMD. "Hide/Move Silently can be buffed to 69/52 without any items whatsoever."
_________________
" -- They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more."

- Pozzo in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett Hi guys,

Been busy and away, so sorry for not responding!

The character build would mostly be for PvP.

Ok, in order...

Kurth!

RDD sounds good, was almost thinking Bard RDD SD 28/10/2 with song and lasting Inspiration, amplify etc to boost hide/MS too, dex based for AC and ab.

Main problem on our server is that although True seeing -is- nerfed there are helms that boost by 25 spot/listen, Clairaudience that gives +10 spot/listen, True Seeing gives see invis and +15 spot and Amplify gives +20 listen, plus any skill or epic skill foci and wis boni.

Dev crit is allowed, and items are high magic, but rather limited... so one would have to keep Fort at 50+ or you are likely toast from a fluke crit.

I really fancy HiPS with very high hide and MS or GS because otherwise you aren't going to live very long.

Did think about Monk but BAB is rather low? Also for AC need finesse, and therefore damage will be low even if AB and AC are higher?

Hiwatt!

I do like the Cleric Monk SD idea a lot, but damage output is rather limited, although there is the implosion option amongs other things. HiPs harm v cool too.. although harm is limited to 250 damage on our server as there was a spate of timestop harm searing combos *coughs*

FinneousPJ, thanks for the reply also.

Checked the build and it is indeed fully kick ***!

Someone made a Ranger Fighter SD build not too dissimilar who has been a real pain in the ***, but My main problem will be the prevalence of spotter/listener mages/clerics and being IGMS or implode fodder.

We have small and tower shields with immunity IGMS, would you believe? Urgh.

As I said we have a min requirements of 50 fort here... there is a suit of armour which gives 10 fort, rings of fort +10 and scarabs of protection +10. I generally have to take epic fort and use con gear to up it.

So I think I either need a really high dex hide/ms build or something with lower Hide/MS and Gs as a back up.

We have had a 6 monk 33 rogue 1 SD who is rather effective, and I saw a similar Monk Assassin SD build on here which looks rather slick... but there are still a lot of problems with some that sneak.

We have even had HiPS dev critters too.

It's hard to chuck out all the info about this server, but its RP with PvP and there is a Warzone area. The place has evolved and has some odd rules and kit, so I guess that skews things for you guys.

Thanks again for the input.