Newbie here!

Also if you have a druid, they can craft amulets of natural AC and with the mithral bucklers, you can get the extra AC and still be able to use your bracers of archery.

 

Hi
As pointed out earlier, if you have a Druid in your party, you can craft Amulets of Natural Armor (which can be used with EVERYTHING to include magic, metal armor). Another couple of items to look into are the "Robes of Midnight" (if you are playing the NC version: adds 1 or 2 to your AC), a good Ring of Protection (you can find +2 Rings in various places) and a Ring of Invisibility. Don't forget that Masterwork and Mithral armors can be crafted to +3 (making the Mithral Shirt AC 7 DEX 6 for a total AC of 23 without any other mods).
I would recommend that you seriously consider the role that your Rogue plays in combat. Based on what you have said (the fact that your Rogue has bracers of Archery that you don't want to give up), I assume that your Rogue is a "Fire Support Specialist" who stays in the back near your Wizard and peppers the bad guys with Arrows. That being the case, your Rogue doesn't really need a very high AC anyway. I usually keep my Rogue in the back (except for scouting runs) and he does fine with an AC of 22 or so. In fact in most cases, he comes through most of the fights, even the big ones, without anyone ever taking a swing at him.
The Royal Canadian

 

Wow, a lot of good info here guys, thanks!

Forsooth! I have no druid! Is there a way for me to get it still? Can I recruit an NPC Druid and have it help me craft this? Also, I had no idea i could use Mithral Buclers without penalties! I'll have to get a couple of those

While the Rogue is indeed a kind of support character, I still put her close to the action, because i want her sneak attacks. Three arrows (I leveled up and finally got three attacks!) are nothing to scoff at when the archer is an invisible Rogue

 

Another thing:

I recently acquired the spell "Solid Fog". I hadn't tried it yet, but then i chanced upon a 3x Hill Giant encounter. Wow, epic fight incoming, i thought, and cast Solid Fog on the area they were in. Turns out that the whole fight after that was all the giants missing my people, and all my people missing the giants, except my spellcasters who happily chucked Fireballs in the general direction of the giants.

So... How exactly are you supposed to use Solid Fog, did I do it right?

 

If you go the route to get Filikin married and court Melony, she is a druid. You can also make a new character as a druid and have them catch up with your group, (they will earn a lot more xp than your others due to their lower level than the rest of the group). That is if your party is not at max already. Otherwise Melony is your best route.


With solid fog, I never used it, but it might be best to give concealment for your spellcasters or but it on enemy archers and spell flingers. Others may have better tactics for you.

Glad some of my info if revealing new things for you airship. If you want to wade through my own topic of discoveries, feel free to use what you wish.

 

There are amulets of natural armor as loot later in the game. You'll find one the Moathouse respawn. There is another one still on one of the bad guys in Verbonc if I'm remembering it right. Then there is the slavers encounter... (also originates in Verbonc).

Darkwood Bucklers also have no armor check penalty. They work for non-arcane characters just as well. They do add a 5% spell failure chance for mages, sorcs and bards.

 

Meleny it is then! What happens if I get her to join, level her, craft my Amulets, and then ask her to leave the party? Would I be able to recruit her again if needed?

Sadly, much of that stuff is beyond me as I haven't reached those parts of the game yet, but I'm picking stuff up as i go, thanks

Interesting, would Darkwood Bucklers be usable without Shield proficiency as well? Moathouse Respawn and Verbobonc is quite a ways (as I have gathered from various comments) away, sadly. I'm still rocking Temple level one!

 

New level, new question!

I was looking at the various feats for my Rogue...

Armor Proficiency (Light)
Improved Uncanny Dodge
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Simple Weapon Proficiency Rogue
Simple Weapon proficiency Elf
Uncanny Dodge
Evasion
Sneak Attack
Trapfinding

And it seems to me that this level's feat (level 9) has to be either Manyshot or Improved Initiative. Improved Initiative is a must-have, but I do like the idea of Manyshot... Does anyone have any experience in using Manyshot? I tried searching but didn't come up with much. Does it stack with Rapid Shot? Or is it more like shooting three arrows at once and being able to move (like a caster does after casting), instead of spending the full turn?

 

What about Fong's Ivy Armor, I'm not to Nulb yet so I can't see it, but I once in the past used this for a druid and crafted it up to +3.

Also your wizard can cast mage armor on him, it will last quite a while. I like to max out Use Magical Device for my rogues, then they can wear wizard robes or a Monk Belt!

 

The Moon-Ivy armor is 4/6 like the Mithral Shirt. There is one like it that gives 1/- called Bondleaf, but... It's ugly as hell I'm not sticking a bunch of leaves on my rogue, no matter if it's actually better than what I use at the moment (it's not, It would still be 10 cumulative AC) If I get more DEX later on it will be better than the Mithral Shirt, but I will still not use it

What's special about a Wizard Robe?

 

Manyshot doesn't stack. Manyshot doesn't do anything until you move (more than a 5 foot step, but your movement icon is still green) and lose your full attacks from being stationary. Manyshot really means shooting multiple shots at once. You shoot once (can't spread it around to multiples) but you have two arrows knocked, you can get damage from two arrows. The AI does this automatically with no other action from you if you have the box (that appears right next to rapid shot) checked. I think (pretty sure) crits and sneak attacks only apply to the first arrow, it's in the description of the feat. Works well to get max damage while moving your rogue to flank attack. Flanking is needed for sneak attacks after an opponent loses their flatfooted first round.

Darkwood buckler works just like a mithral except for the weight and arcane spell penalty. IIRC it was put in the game for druids originally.

 

Keep an eye out for the yellow feat box when your rogue levels up. Crippling Strike and Opportunist can only be taken when that yellow "class only" feat box is there when you level up. They can't be taken when just the regular white box for all feats appears, as they aren't highlighted for you to take as a feat then. At least, that's the way my game works as you level up a rogue only character. Crippling strike is an awesome feat, reduces the strength of your opponent by 2 every time it hits. You may have been on the receiving end of one from one of Smigmal Redhand's assasins if you've managed to meet one. Happens in addition to HP damage when your sneak attacks hit. Opportunist is only really effective if you have a hand to hand melee rogue (usually specializing in two weapon fighting instead of archery).

 

There are some nice wizards robes that add either an armor bonus or a deflection bonus. There is one in HB, Senshok's, as well as robes of the Arch Magi you can craft.

Bondleaf is ok, but as it is not masterwork, you can not enhance it further. I wish it was, but oh well. Bracers of AC are better and get up to +5.

 

But why would I need use magic device for those robes? :x

By the way, I just encountered a weird groub of adventurers heading to a port town or something. I used my spokesman for the conversation and it was pretty much just "We're adventurers, you? Oh cool, well, we must be on our way then." Kinda thing. What was up with that? I killed them all (And after all their mouthing off I thought they were gonna be a challenge, heh) and looted some magic gear from them, but was that all that encounter could yield?

Did I miss out on anything?

 

Yes, that was it on the other adventuring party, just free loot!

Since only wizards of the correct alignment can wear Robes of the Archmagi, you need a good UMD score to have a rogue wear them, but they are nice, especially in your case:

# +5 armor bonus to AC.
# Spell resistance 18.
# +4 resistance bonus on all saving throws.

Also you could use a Monk's Belt if your WIS gives a bonus. Plus I think it improves your movement rate as if you were a monk.


I like to give my rogue a couple of wands as well, nothing like an extra fireball or chain lightning to start off the round. They can also be the backup healer in small parties because they can use cleric scrolls.