"Something about Meleny"

Hmmm thanks for the input,appreciated as it brings life to our NPCs. After playing Baldurs Gate I found little NPC & PC interaction here which I must admit,miss. So there is little reason to have weak NPCs unless for role playing sake(ie Priscella and Zaxis have better stats). Mel's reaction to Serena and Rhiana being in party also was fun..heh.. Meleny is akin to Aerie(spelling?) in Baldurs Gate ^_* .

DragonHide Plate I have seen at An Fong's and Woodcutter I think,and Troll Armour..hmm not tried yet. The Monk belt increases Monk skills by 5 levels,lol..(10th level item),it is just a thought on her 'other' possible multiclass.

I have considered all those mentioned crafted items,but we have to work on options for 3rd&5th(craft WI and W&A(5th))to give low level parties benefit. Interum solution is to buy from Lodriss and Skole what items affordable-Bracers +3 & Gloves of dex +4. Cabinet maker gives MW QStaff,LCrossBow & MW/ Deklo/Elf shields & Bing sells MW sling(I face skeletons also several times)& MW leather armours. Gloves of Ogre is cheapest quick fix,but Dex gloves..then,lol.

I do not know this protos tab before,lol. I tried using Hex editor but got lost how to use it..aghh. OK opted for 'Spell Focus(Conjuration)' and 'Dodge'(role playing vs Ochre jellies..lol).

#Important to remember HUNKS OF MEAT-no weight giving CURE MINOR WOUNDS each use,and Wand of Cure Light Wounds(Lodris) to help survive combat,in lieu of better scrolls and potions(weight concerns).

Animals are best if 'Augment Summoning',but difficult to get. I completely was a newbie on Tactical Combat use..only just trying it out. Fruella's Imp Trip is useful if strength OK..aghhh. Imp Trip & Combat Reflexes is best I think together??? Tactical 'Combat casting' in melee is handy. 'Ready vs Spell' I encountered a lot in entering Temple side door and Zert ambush. Mel the mad Monk/Druid has 'deflect arrows' ^_* . Thanks for the trips err I mean tips.. I did not know about NPC data until insight on Protos tab. VERY USEFUL!!!

Game enjoyability is my goal. With more fun and creative approaches to our NPCs I can play the game and not worry so much about just 'hack and slash' which just gets boring after a while. Yihee.

 

Speaking of the Druid Vest for Hill Giant Wildshaping, what about Kella's Ring of Change? How do you get her to fight as a hill giant equipped with a REAL weapon? She's only doing subdual damage!!

 

Oh don't know this one,is it on the Combat options-for real damage??? Check there,I have not had her fight yet,so not sure?

 

Greetings all ya people!
I've a long time without play ToEE - becose my PC was, well, out... - but I'm back, and, to be honest, I don´t understand exactly whats the problem with Meleny! She is not strong or quicly, right, but she makes an excelent spellcaster druid! Is so hard to me dont take her on a party! She is cute, gives a excelent "bous iten" and is a druid! Druids are excelent spellcaster, and come with a pet as bonus! A small masterwork leather armour and masterwork light crossbow and bukcler as equipment and some cure spells on the first two levels makes she a decent back-up. At the tird level, some heightened produce flame spell makes she useful, and afther this, with call lightning and other high level ranged spells, I improve her equipment with gloves of DX, a ring of protection, change the buckler/crossbow for elven shield and rod of smiting and voilá! She makes and excelent "hirable" NPC.

Spugnoir is much less usefull, becose he havent a school of specialization, no good attributes and even so, I see people taking him as a back-up NPC, as Pishella, that is a dual-class arcane spellcaster! At least she have somo good stats, but she waste a level having two spellcaster classes... A tragedy...

To be realy honest, I prefer Druids as offensive spellcasters. They have a very good hit dice, can use some good armours and aren't hellpless if a enemy come close tho they. With a lot of spells with duration, they just need to cast one or two spells for battle, and so dont waste all theyr spell options in just a couple of skirmishes. Add some heal spells for emergencies and a animal companion to make some distraction, and ho needs fireball?!? Druids are much better than wizards as offensive casters, that's wath I say.

Ah, sory for the huge comment and for the bad english, ok?

 

Melony is a good support character. She can heal, she can do light attack spells as well as defensive buffs and roadblock spells. She can conjure a fair amount of shock troops and can craft some nice items. To protect her you must focus on items for her and having two controllable fighters that can shield her.

 

Another way to look at DND 3.5 is to look at the game rock paper scissors.
each can beat the other but also lose to the other.
Most strategy games (computer games) use this similar concept. Artillary can blow up infantry but cavalry wasts artillary.

Mages can't fight but cast seplls
rogues have limited combat skills and interaction skills.
fighers have kewl feats, armor and HPs
Clerics have HPs, some toughness (via spells) and support HPs for the party.

Rock paper scissors

Melany is a character like one of the three above things. just like a fighter or mage is.

 

To be honest, I've never have problems with Meleny being killed so easely... She is more hard to kill than standart mages or even bard/rogues! I dont hire Furnok exactly becose of this! He is a 4 lvl rogue with notable few hit poits - becone of a low Con modificator - and no good range choices! He dies much more easy than Meleny! And the damn bugbears klls my wizards/sorcerers before they can just cast a spell! A shame! Meleny haven't looots of hit points, realy, but much more than mostly rogues/wizards of her same level!

 

Good input,it depends on your party make up,I saw the data in files on Monster attack priorities,and some go for 'Closest PC','Wounded','High AC & Low AC' PCs etc,so be careful of your enemy. Spugy & Furnok I do not use,as i have my one Wiz and Rogue,so wasted xps to them. IF you fail a lockpick or need to disarm a chest,perhaps use Furnok them ditch him after. He retires after 2000gp in his inventory also.

Mel is a good allrounder,but she in game gets picked on by every nasty I know..lol at low level. Bugbears and Gnolls etc will dodge past me to get to her,and even my Wiz gets beat up,so it could be a low hp(Mel has the lowest in party) or spellcasting PC trigger the monsters attack on?

 

As you can easily get your characters up to level 12 or more I tend not to worry if they get splatted to much as it adds a bit of spice if you can't just walk through the game.

 

Eeeeeeeeee it is darn hard to get high level,lol. I level squat to get higher xp,that is delay levelling until 2 levels higher is reached(where it wont let you gain anymore xps). I have to push for my xps even defering Crafting. My PCs even as experienced gamer as I am,get trashed and I have to baby them along to survive,and reloads... It gets boring when you have killer PCs fighting kobolds,goblins or 11hp temple guards etc and then you get 250hp Bugbear killers as the extreme which wipe my party out. So not easy really. The game is a challenge.

Updating:

Meleny is 6th level. Found way to craft early on(you need money first) and she has Bracers +3(Lodris),Gloves +4 DEX(Skole),Belt STR +6(crafted),and Jian +2(An Fong & crafted)..& Sling +2(crafted) and she is 5th Druid/1st Monk(after killing the Scarlet Brotherhood & Hexor priests you gain nice Monk items,and I have high level druid already,so monk is fun change). She does not need armour-before I found the 'small' leather type armours can be worn by her at reduced weight.

 

I've never seen a masterwork jian in-game and I haven't been able to find it in the equipment codes in the description.mes. Did you insert it somehow?

 

The jian sold is "masterwork".

 

When passing from one screen to the next (entering & exiting bldgs etc...)
the party is placed into a cross pattern as follows.

................5
................1
.........8 4......3 7
................2
................6


Disregard the dots they are there to hold the cross in place.

 

OK I got the party order worked out,thanks.

Jians are found in Nulb at An Fongs. There is a lot of cool monk weapons but a waste as all 'exotic' weapons,even for a Monk!!!

 

I like Melanie and marrying her gets the +1 Holy long sword as dowry, which you can't craft without a Cleric, so with a Druid-based party it's pretty cool.

But there's something else about Melanie: although she has her weaknesses, she also has unfair strengths. I don't know if this has been discussed before but Melanie seems to have a free, invisible Feat, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Repeating Crossbow (as per version 5.0.5 - I don't have the beta).

It's not noted in her character sheet, the item appears red in her inventory with the floating text "You are not proficient with this item", but she can use the crossbow from the tailor, Wonnilon's crossbow +1 and Iolo's Joy without the -4 non-proficiency penalty and also gets the Rapid Reload benefit associated with repeating crossbows without taking either Feat. She can also use normal crossbows without penalty and without the red warning outline. As a pure Druid she should not be able to use crossbows at all! In contrast, my Ftr-Rgr-Brd and my Drd-Illusionist can NOT use the reapeating weapons, although they can use normal crossbows due to class.

Melanie should have only "Simple weapon proficiency, Druid" and "Martial weapon proficiency, Scimitar". But she also has "Simple weapon proficiency" allowing her to use ALL simple weapons as if she were a Cleric.

"Simple weapon proficiency, Druid" in 3.5E includes only the weapons Unarmed strike, all natural weapons, Dagger, Sickle, Club, Quarterstaff, Shortspear, Spear, Sling and Darts.

(Personally, IMC, I would allow Druids to also use Khopesh, Falchion, Scythe, Javelin and Longspear, but that's another story. Come to that, Clerics should have only Simple, bludgeoning and Martial, bludgeoning plus the favoured weapon of their deity, unless they are some sort of dedicated mythos priest that allows variant weapons, such as a God of Lightning allowing bow, javelin and spear or an Ocean God allowing Trident, harpoon and net etc, but again I digress).

While it is advantageous to have a free Feat or two, I was going to give her the Exotic feat at 12th level as she already has Point Blank and Precise Shot for her meisterwerk sling. But now I can give her a metamagick or creation feat instead (she has Craft Wondrous Items at 9th).

Is it possible to fix this? I can role-play it by using the sling until she's 12th level, but items that a character is not proficient with or disallowed by class should either be unequippable or incur the -4 non-proficiency penalty until they take the feat that allows use of the item.

As I say, I don't know if this has come up before or if it's addressed in the new beta.


Cheers