Here's one for you. Invite Rianna, the whore who despises being a whore [Serena's sister], to join your party. She has good stats for a NPC to start. Give her barbarian armor, some leather boots, a buckler shield, and a magic spear. Tank and power level her. You will notice she has rogue feats when she joins your party. The first time she levels and can train, select barbarian. The next time she trains, select ranger. This gives her a very long list of feats; choose archery for the ranger feature. Subsequently, train her as a ranger each time she levels. Have her use a greatsword [weapon focus, weapon finesse, improved critical, greater improved critical, etc]. One last word, doing the above makes her rock solid as a member of the A-Team. What NPC success stories can you tell? Post your success stories.
Not many, really. When I use NPCs, I usually console them to have solid stats (18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 10). I also always use the Humble NPC's mod. However, some non-console stuff (still requires that "NPCs level as PCs" be installed): Elmo as a Fighter 8/Barbarian 2 is deadly as heck. Don't bother with two weapon fighting; it's not worth much unless you also get Quick Draw to keep swaping weapons around. Mel is actually a pretty good Druid even without the console; give her Craft Item at 3 and Scribe Scroll at 6 and she can equip your party with all sorts of goodies and then spend combats in the back row summoning, buffing, healing, and casting offensive spells (scribe scroll gives her an unlimited supply of Druid spells). Spugnoir is a good enough Wizard and a decent shot with a crossbow. Cast Fox's Cunning and later give him a Headband of Intellect to increase the DC of his spells, Take Rapid Reload at 3, Craft Item at 5, Spell Penetration at 6, Greater Spell Penetration at 9, and Empower Spell at 10. Give him a +3 Holy Frost Crossbow and Gloves of Dexterity +6 and he'll be able to do some damage even when he's out of spells.
Yeah that sounds remarkably like how I use Spuggy. Those missile feats he comes with are perfect for a low-level Wizard.
Agreed. Wizards should usually (imo) be ranged combatants; getting in close when you have d4 for hit dice is a waste of a good character. Spug may lack the full punch at high levels that you can get from pumping all your slots into spell feats, but at lower levels he's still a solid contributer, and a heavy crossbow can do serious damage. I like to keep him (and Mel) in the back, buffing and casting attack spells, then switching to missiles when their supplies of scrolls and wands start to run low. If you keep Spug all the way to level 8+ and he's in a situation where his spells may not do much direct damage (the Node Guardian fights and Iuz), a custom crafted +3 Heavy Crossbow with damage enhancements is a safe bet. His BAB isn't good, but layer on the buffs (after he's done providing support in other ways) and he'll hit often enough to make it worth the trouble.
I was giving examples of the kinds of feats to select. Weapons Finesse applies to all weapons a character is proficient with. Rianna starts by default as a Rogue. Train her, first, as a Barbarian and, subsequently - after that, train her only as a Ranger. * Her feats after training as a ranger lists from the top of the feats window all the way to the bottom of the feats window. ** She can use one of the magic spears you would normally sell, right from the start. *** She can close on a monster she engages and, when she hits, can do things like get additional sneak attack damage. **** Plus she has an uber long distance she can run each round because she trained as a barbarian. She can keep up with turned undead who are running away. suggested feats selected could be like this.. martial weapon proficiency (greatsword) weapon focus (greatsword) weapon finesse greater weapon focus (greatsword) improved critical (greatsword) greater improved critical (greatsword)
If Weapon Finesse works for all weapons you're proficient with in ToEE, then ToEE has another issue for modders to fix, 'cause it ain't supposed to work that way! :shame:
