Hi everyone, I'm new to these forums, although I have played vanilla ToEE since it was out. First of all, many thanks to the co8 modding team for making the game totally different in terms ov convenience and replayability. I appreciate your hard work and devotion. Now, I started this thread to find out if anyone is playng (like me) with a high-dexterity party. I discovered this scheme a couple years ago when I wanted to try an all-spellcasters party. As you know, most spellcasters suffer a spell failure chance for wearing armor, so I thought what if I get rid of armor completely. I found out that characters having at least 16 dexterity (+3 AC) are capable of doing pretty good without any armor. Let's do a little math: the spell Mage Armor adds +4 AC (armor modifier). This is a kick- ass 1st level spell that has an extremely long duration. Druid's Barkskin provides additional +2 (which becomes +4! at lvl 9, natural modifier). This is +6 total, with +3 from Dex bonus we have 19 armor at lvl1 just like that! And with no penalties to Hide, Move Silently, Tumble and no spell faliure chance! But there's more to it! At lvl1 Cleric can cast Protection from Evil. This gorgeous spell not only protects from mind-affecting spells, but adds +2 to AC (deflection modifier) when attacked by an Evil creature. Since most of our foes in ToEE are Evil in one way or another, this is an extra +2 to AC at lvl1! Later in the game there are ways to further improve the AC. When our Cleric gets access to Magic circle vs Evil, he just cats it on the whole party and frees 1-lvl spell slots for Bless, Bane and such. Also, Elven wooden shields are very useful, since they add Shield bonus to AC and have no penalties to skills and spell failure. They give +2 AC initially, and +5 (!) when fully upgraded. Don't forget about Dodge feat (+1 AC, Dodge modifier, STACKS with other Dodge bonuses), rings of protection (Deflection, DOES NOT STACK with Protection from Evil or Shield of Faith) and an absolutely fabulous Shield spell (only for Wiz or Sor though), which adds +4 AC, Dodge modifier. Oh, and don't forget about making Gloves of Dexterity for everyone! So, at lvl9, a character with 18 Dex, Dodge feat, and buffed with spells will have 31 AC (+4 Dex bonus, +1 Dodge, +5 Bracers of Armor, +4 Barkskin, +2 Deflection (Protection vs Evil, Ring of Shield of Faith, +5 Shield (Elven, fully upgraded). A wizard can add +4 to this from Shield spell, and a Druid can add +6 (!) from Tree Shape spell. Needless to say, all you characters will have high initiative bonus, and no movement speed penalties. Sweet, isn't it? Well, I wanted to share this with you guys and now I did Any suggestions how to further improve gameplay with no armor, hi-dex party?
Magic Celtic Tattoos (available in Nulb) add +4 to Natural AC - do not stack with Necklace of Natural Armor or Barkskin. They can also be crafted to add another +3 (Enhancement bonus,) but they can't (or at least shouldn't - not sure if that was fixed) be transferred from one character to another to be crafted.
OK, I haven't used a monk since 5.0.x, so I haven't had any reason to test it. I just remember that you used to be able to do it if you had Humble NPCs activated.
Heh, for some stupid reason I always assumed that Shield and Mage Armour wouldn't stack... the former should be a Shield bonus though, not a Dodge bonus. Thats an exploit.
Royal Canadian, thanks for your reply. Your comments do make sense, but concerning the stats I meant that we start with 16 Dex, and then put additional points in it at lvls 4 and 8. About the shields, I was talking about Wooden Elven shields in particular (or Mithral bucklers in 5.6.x), which DO NOT have spell faliure chance. Of course, you're going to need a feat for a wizard or sorcerer to use this shield, but hey - for +5 AC from Shield bonus, I think it's a good trade-off. About the monk - I didn't use a monk in my party, because he is unable to cast spells. And my primary concern was that "everyone casts" )) Anyway, with a party consisting of a Cleric of Obad-Hai, a Druid, a Bard and a Wizard I was able to complete the game by killing Zuggtmoy. Although I did have some hard time at low levels (in Moathouse, especially), but I had no problems at the Temple whatsoever! Very few challenging battles, really. Those bugbears couldn't even get close to me, trapped with Entangle, Web, Grease, Stinking Cloud and Ice Storm. In fact, very few situations where I had to use my weapons))
Actually, I think the Elven shields and definitely the mithril bucklers do not have Armor Check Penalties. Therefore, there is no penalty for non-proficiency.
One of my "tanks" in my current game wears no armor. Eventually, she will be wearing runes, Bracers of Defense and other odds and ends for an armor class in the 30's. She is usually Human 2 Monk/2 Rogue/x Fighter. Sometimes I throw in levels of other classes, but they don't seem to add much.
