New to game seeking advice on lots of things

Spring attack is basically move-attack-move again. I have it with 2 characters, but rarely get to use it. Combat is very close quarters by the time you can get the feat, I maybe use it 1/10 fights. Its OK for the non level cap game where you start to run out of good feats, but there are better ones to use early on.

 

Hi
Just a few more comments if I may.

1.) If you are planning on multi-classing your Rogue as a Fighter, four levels of Fighter gets you Weapon Specialization.

2.) Regarding Clerics: The two best domains are War and Good. You might also want to try a party with two Clerics, one with War and Good, the other with Law and Good. This way at 7th Level your fighters and Clerics can Have +2, Holy, Axiomatic weapons which will do Base Damage + 2 + 2D6 + 2D6 against most of the monsters in the Temple. No other class can craft a 2D6 burst on a weapon until 10th Level. Yes the Good Domain is important. In order to craft Holy weapons, you need the spell "Holy Smite" which is available only to Clerics with the Good Domain. I should point out that Holy Smite is a decent spell in it's own right, doing up to 5D8 of damage and possibly blinding (temporarily) evil creatures.

3.) I never use Counterspell at all. Keep in mind that if you are going to have one (or more) of your spellcasters counterspelling the enemy, they can't do any casting of their own. You are much better to simply target the enemy spellcasters with Fireballs, Arrows, Spiritual Weapons, etc... until they are dead. Moral of the story: Take out the Enemy spellcasters first (this could be a good role for your "Two Weapon Fighting", "Spring Attacking" Rogue to fill).

4.) Combat Reflexes works with ALL Armors, including Heavy Armor. It is one of the first feats I give my fighters and "Fighting Clerics".

5.) The main advantage of Light/Medium Armor is that you can "Tumble" in them (especially the Mithral and Elvin variants). Also if you have a character with a really high DEX, the lighter the armor, the more of your DEX that you use towards AC.

6.) I have never used Spring Attack, but it should work with Two Weapon Fighting . If you are planning on using Two Weapon Fighting, I would also get Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus in something like Rapier or Shortsword and use two of them. As General Ghoul pointed out, by the time you can get Spring Attack, most of your fights are going to be in tight quarters where it's use will be limited.

The Royal Canadian

 

Careful now, the mere thought of making the assertion: bards are better than our forest-dwelling, nature-loving, spirit-guiding friends, the Druids is complete and utter blasphemy. Rather, given the rest of his party make-up, I simply think a bard would serve as a powerful compliment. However, since you also asked why I like bards, I'm going to pull out an excerpt from one of my pro-bard posts in an old thread. See:

The Really Big Class Discussion Thread

In summary, one of the big things about the bard is that you will probably keep his primary stat, CHA pretty high which has a nice synergy with the conversation skills. Effectively this means you are making an extremely powerful arcane magic user that can also handle the talking. Now the great strategy in doing this is that it relieves your rogue of being the face person so he can focus on some more combat-oriented duties (sneak attack is so deadly). I think it works nicely. I can't remember if facinate is working-as-designed, but it's yet another awesome ability of the bard. Plus they can fight just as good as druids.

My ideal party is actually: Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard, Bard and a Druid. Barkskin is such a necessity. But I usually only give my druid the Craft Wonderous Item feat and let the cleric and wizard forge the weapons and armor. So, surprise surprise I'm actually a bard-lover and a druid-lover. :yes:

No problem, definitely give heighten a try, a must-have for wizards. You keep confusing me with Ranth, maybe because we have the same avatars

 

Hi Arius
You are correct, I look at the Avatar and "ASSUME" that the post I am replying to is from Ranth. My apologies, I will check more closely in the future. Interesting comments on Bards. One question if I may: The party composition that you mention has 6 characters in it, are you running 6 PCs or 5 PCs and Meleny ?
The Royal Canadian

 

@ TRC:

I run 6 PCs in my parties. Nothing against Meleny, just like to build them exactly how I want them.

 

ToEE Front-end X can allow you to make a party up to 8 players...

And yes, a bard CAN make a huge difference. I once made a bard in tabletop D&D who by singing alone gave my gang a +4 (that's "to hit" & AND "Damage), and it stacked with everything cause the bardic song is a morale bonus. Granted, we were allowed to use every 3.5 book available.

And yes, I'm also a bard & druid lover... That's the reason why I also loathe D&D 4th ed., the 2 coolest classes were not available in the first players handbook. That, and the total blandness of 4th ed

 

I'm surprised no one has said this about the druid. The druid can convert any spell to a Summon Nature's Ally spell.

The real use of this spell is to:

(1) interfere with enemy artillery and long range troops
(2) provide a flanking bonus for other characters. You can drop a summoned creature behind the tough opponent, and then use your rogue to attack that opponent straight on. This gives your rogue access to the benefits of sneak attack without having to spend one action looping your rogue around the enemy.
(3) Provide your characters time to do things. I always use the summon nature's ally spells against the early spiders. It gives my characters time to break free of the webs and scatter.

The druid isn't meant to be a powerhouse by itself. It is meant to be a support character that augments the abilities of other characters.

 

If I recall the highest song bonus you can get in the Co8 modpack is +1, even if you have 20 bard levels. Correct me if I'm wrong, was this fixed? I'm just curious and am, in no way, complaining because I understand this was hard for the Co8 modders to code in.

I haven't played 4th Ed. at all yet, but that has just completely turned me off from doing so. We both agree those are two of the most versatile, interesting classes to play. Why they would elect to do something like that completely eludes me.

Another thing I forgot about bards: Bards are the only class that get one of the best, if not THE best, buff spells in the ToEE game --> good hope: gives something like +2 to everything (damage, to-hit, saves, skills) for the whole party. And its a morale bonus, so it stacks with almost everything and lasts for a very long time :grin:

 

You would have to spend a long time rolling to get a better bard than Zaxis, the wandering bard. he has great stats, and as an elf, he can use a long bow and longsword. He makes a great secondary fughter, healer, and buffer. I gave him all the wands I find, an extra chain lightning here and there always helps out, and he is a great charmer.

His early spell choices aren't great, so when you can trade out some of those spells, take the opportunity to do so, I think every 3 levels he can trade out spells, not sure what the frequency is though. Since I can't use him as the face, or need him on locks/traps, I can focus his skills into UMD, tumble, concentration, and perform.

 

Now, after exam session I can focus on playing. Going to use all these advices for constructing my party.