Help a newbie

Yeah, my party currently consists of:

Halfling rogue
Half-elf ranger
Half-orc barbarian
Human cleric
Human generalist wizard

The ranger went with bow proficiency, since I'd intended for her to be a mobile archer, but given how ranged combat is playing out, I'm wishing I specced her for dual-weapon combat instead. I may end up "fixing" my characters through some console editing, but I might also just restart the game with a new party. It's not that my guys can't handle themselves, but I can't help but think they'd be doing a lot better if they weren't hampered by choices I made earlier before I understood more about how various aspects of the game work.

 

Also don't forget that elves are all proficient with longbows (1d8 vice 1d6 for shortbows). That's the other reason I go for mostly elves. My cleric is human because it's easier to get to crafting without staying within 1 level of fighter, and the barbarian is a half-orc because strength is more important for melee.

 

Yeah, my barbarian is half-orc for that reason (and has a natural Str. of 20, but Int. of 9...).

My cleric is human because I wanted a Pelor cleric. My halfling is my rogue because...I dunno, I've always used halfling rogues ever since Pool of Radiance on my old Apple IIC. Didn't really have a reason for the other race selections, except that I wanted an elf or half-elf in the party, and figured I'd make my wizard human because...why not?

I think my main problem has been in not sufficiently maximizing my hitpoints on leveling (Barbarian is at level 5 but only has 49HP), and in selecting feats that might be useful, but not at the PCs' level. I plan to fix that with a character editor.

--EDIT--

Back to tips.

Before taking an action, I think you can hold down the left mouse button to see what path your character will take, and whether it'll possibly provoke an AoO. Do this when possible, especially when considering casting a healing spell. I THINK healing is a little buggy in that if you have a ranged weapon equipped, "touch" heals become "ranged" heals, whereas if you have a melee weapon equipped, they become "touch" heals with the range of the weapon you have equipped. So, if your cleric suddenly switched from a sling to a mace, and is about to cast a healing spell, watch out to make sure they don't rush into enemy melee range (or at least be prepared for it if they do).

 

Speaking of tips, you did see the "Max Hit Points" option in the Front End, didn't you? The only drawback is if you select it, all the monsters get max hit points too. That can be somewhat painful once you get deep into the temple.

 

This is a good place to get your 3.5 info:
http://www.d20srd.org

 

Which gets covered pretty well by the whole range increment thing, although then a bonus to defense does make sense. Its just like you say, its not "ducking in cover", its "lying still from that archer all of 10 yards from you." ESPECIALLY if its based on grease or some other forced prone state ability.

I don't know, finding that out makes me think twice about how I go about CC. Granted, in PnP ranged itself tends to be an iffy subject, but its easy enough to make work in here I'd rather help than hinder it. Plus glitterdust works no matter how you play :kirby:

 

Yeah, I think I'll be using grease only very sparingly. It seems far more situational than what I'd hoped for as an almost all-purpose crowd control approach.

Color spray and sleep (early on), glitterdust, deep slumber, or stinking cloud seem like they'll be of more use.

My issue with the prone thing is this. There's a big difference between diving for cover in a rice paddy (where the rice can actually obscure you from view), and slipping and falling on your ass in the middle of a grassy field or a dungeon corridor (where you're rendered helpless/defenseless). I mean, if the game modeled terrain affects on things like to-hit probabilities, that'd be one thing. But that's not what grease is doing. Grease is dumping you on your butt and making you slip and slide all over the place.

The other thing I wish I could do is throw a grease patch down, and then hit it with some fire attack to light the whole area on fire for the duration of the grease spell. But I guess that's not really possible.

 

Even the balor and Zuggtmov have been known to fail their saves against Stinking Cloud- just saying...and AFAIK using scrolls doesn't provoke AoO while using potions does...

 

The nice thing about glitterdust is the blind foes are flat footed and very susceptible to sneak attacks.

 

Yeah, Stinking Cloud and Glitterdust are both known gamebreakers in actual PnP up with the crowd who loves to find such things, and the reasons this is true still exist in game. Grease is supposed to be as well (this biggest kicker is even a Balor and Zuggtmoy don't know how to balance to save their lives... literally), but the two big issues here are a) building around it, since some techniques to control it don't exist (i.e. Sculpt Spell, spare skill points for balance check when this game rewards too many skills, especially the non-standard tumble.) and b) the whole false range indicator BS. Its way too often I drop it or maneuver around it only to find the graphic does not match the actual area of effect. Actually a really big deal with a spell like this.

But glitterdust. Glitterdust everything. Glitterdust solves all problems. Including, like Sirchet said, how to get your rogue sneak attacks.

 

Lighting a web?!

 

Scorching Ray- a second level ranged touch attack spell- is great for setting Webs on fire, giving the effect of a low level fireball...

 

But grease won't light? Seriously?