Useful tricks

I think this could serve well to all who starts a new game, or have problems creating characters, or never played 3.5 before; there's lots of people telling "i can't hit anything with my two weapon-wielding rogue", "i can't use maximize spell", or "my rapid-many-super-duper archer miss always"...well, all the experienced players (or not!) could post here their personal tricks and advices, as a guide (and learn another ones why not)so...

For beginners, if using a mage, do not buy all those cool, awesome metamagic feats at low levels! First survival, then power. A good feat to buy at first level is point-blank-shot, it gives +1 to attack and damage (at short range, still...) and also it applies to missile spells that require a ranged roll! This way, your Melf's acid arrow as a little better chance of hitting and +1 to damage. The second feat should be Precise shot, since it negates the -4 penalty to fire into melee; so, when your wiz gets empty, still can help, or you could keep your spell for a needed moment. Rapid reload could be handy if you wish to use a heavy crossbow (or if your wiz is human), letting you shoot and positioning again.
Another thing to have in mind: the familiar. While not useful in combat it has various habilities (the frog is a very good one, it provides +3 hit points) depending which one, but all share the same basic advantages,(+2 spot,+2 search). If you made a elf wiz, buy spot and search skills, added to the racial elf benefits (+2spot search and listen) and since search is triggered by intelligence, it has a better chance of spot something.

Well, all who has somethimg to share, do it!

 

I'm not sure how useful this tip is, but I always try to use elves for mages because they have an automatic proficiency with the longbow and longsword. While most mages don't make good melee figthers, on with a high dexterity could prove deadly when weilding a longbow.

 

...that's the kind of thing that most new players don't look...
plus, instead of rapid reload, could buy rapid shot and since you have the proficiency, weapon focus (using the bonus wizard feats for metamagic) and the wiz becomes almost the most useful character(could spot, search, is a good ranged fighter, has powerful spells, and can make magical items), and with masterwork thieve's tools...

And a good low-level combination: cast web, shoot'em with th others, cast grease, keep shooting, cast burning hands to the closer affected enemys or fireball to affect all; since web imposes a penalty to dexterity, it will be easier to hit them, the reflex saving throw for the grease will also be affected, and if they fall (because of the grease) you'll get one or two sneak attacks, and cannot make a save roll for the fireball or burning hands which also makes extra damage because the web is flammable...very useful against those damned dodgier bugbears!

 

One thing I like to do with clerics and wizards is get the "craft wand" feat when I can. With that you can craft wands for the spells you always use and not have them fill slots that could be used for other spells. For example: Identify and Haste for wizards and Cure Critical Wounds and Shield of Faith for clerics.

And like Whatsername74 said, the Elf makes a good wizard because of that Longbow proficiency. You don't have to take Rapid Reload with the longbow and you can put all those arrows taken of bad guys to good use.

 

Another good character combination is the Half Orc rogue/barbarian armed with a longspear; a few levels of rogue (4 or 6) for the sneak attack, and the rest of barbarian for the rage and the martial weapons, with dodge and mobility, makes a excelent support warrior, since it moves faster, maneuver and strike from distance, and the longspear lets you add 1 and 1/2 the bonus strength plus distance lets you flank easily and deliver particularly damaging blows, since the rage, the added strength of the longspear and the sneak attack all stack, without having to get directly in melee, and if you go first in the initiative, strike that damned archer or mage that cover behind all others!

 

With a fighter, get :
Exotic weapon, bastard sword (trust me, you'll be glad.)
Improved initiative (first strike can often be the difference you need to prevail.)
Weapon focus, Bastard sword.

For a cleric, absolutely get scribe scroll right away. Healing without AoO is crucial.
Also, try proficiency with a pole arm; you can stand behind the front line guys, and still hit enemies.

Whoever the group's front man is, being 1/2Elf helps with diplomacy skills.

Be sure to get crafting skills(wondrous item and A&W) as soon as possible. With enough cash and experience, you can turn your group of average joes into the "Superfriends"!

And if you play a dwarf, be sure to be gruff and curmudgeonly; it's important.

If you play all the little quests in Hommlet, its boring, but it can give you some important early level-boosting.

 

A Dwarf Sponge can be useful - feats such as great fortitude, diehard and toughness (take a few times) as well as a maxed out Constitution are essential. As for what class(es) rogue2/cleric the rest, rogue2/druid the rest are good (driud is a good choice if you use a different race) or atleast 7 levels of barbarian to get some damage reduction. The point of this chracter is to have the lowest AC of your party, if they have some spellcasting ablities and aren't quite at full health they will attract a large number of attacks which they should be able to soak up (and with a healing class they should be able to fix themselves up) while your other characters go to work.

this character exploits the games AI a bit.

 

A good trick with a fighter is power attack, cleave, dodge, mobility, combat expertise, spring attack, whirlwind attack, combat reflexes...when you get your hands on Fragarach or Scather (you can still use it two-handed and give you the bonus of strength 1 & 1/2), pump to the max the bonus to damage from power attack(+5), the bonus from expertise (+5), equip a +3 buckler and since Frag or Scath always hit ...throw him in the middle of the battle and enjoy the carnage!

 

Make your high dex elf wizard a ranger also for the archery feats. Or, go with a halfling rogue ranger & do the same.

 

Familiars are also useful for that do or die moment when you only have a wiz alive and are facing total party wipeout. Use it to buy a round to try and flee...

 

For smacking critters around, I like my fighter types to use greatswords in melee. 2d6 is better than even 1d10.
Cleave is nice, too. Power Attack is a prereq, but I rarely use it because of the to hit reduction.
I must admit, I also avoid metamagic. Only because I don't really know how to use it :cry: :cry:

 

Give your druid one level of cleric at some point: you'll get more cure spells and maybe a few perks depending on your deity (has anyone tried a cleric of Farlangh? does the "chance" power really work?)

I'm considering giving my bard a level of sorc as well, with spells such as True Strike or maybe charm person.


Don't start your character's main spellcasting class as any other spellcasting class at level 1 (ie I started my wizard as a ranger to max out stealth skills and thought that was smart): your default spell list will always be that other class's (ranger, in my case..), meaning an extra click every time, AND for some reason it trashes metamagic (crazy results as you scroll down your spell list - enlarge person becomes magic missile, etc)

You can choose a war deity (and domain) for your cleric: that will get you weapon focus in the deity's favored weapon.


A question now: does it still compute in 5.0.4 to have a ranger specialized against humains when you are using social skills? I gave my bard/rogue 2 levels of ranger, chose human, and it doesn't seem to compute at least where Appraise is concerned (and to the rest of your skills when you check them from your character sheet even as you're bartering) - thanks.

 

Not sure if I have any tricks as such, but I like Scribe Scroll. Every pure spellcaster should have it.

Single class Clerics, Sorcerers and Druids with Scribe Scroll effectively have unlimited spells per day, for a trivial XP and Gold cost. Both resources are renewable, and the trade off is more than worth it. They can then hand out their scribed scrolls to Rogues or Bards with high Use Item skills, as well as multiclass Druids and Clerics, allowing almost unlimited spellcasting for the whole party.

Buffs suddenly become much more practical when everyone is carrying a stack of scrolls. Combats go faster and your party takes less of a beating.

Other minor notes:

Spell Focus Enchantment is always a good choice at any level for casters with access to Enchantment spells.

Spell Penetration is a must for damage dealing casters, less so for buffers or conjurers.

Summon spells are much better than they're given credit for; summoned monsters deal damage phase after phase, and suck up attacks that otherwise would be sent out at your PCs. Sure, some foes will try to move around your summoned minions, but not most, and even when they do you'll still get the benefit of a walking damage machine wandering through the bad guys.

Stinking Cloud, Spike Stones, Soften Earth and Stone, and even Entangle are much more useful than they may seem, if you have missile weapons and damage spells ready.

Quick Draw is way more useful than it looks, especially in combination with Enlarge Person and Two Weapon Fighting.

Two Weapon Fighting is a bit of a waste at low levels, but at higher levels with magic weapons and spell buffs can really come into its own. You lose the raw damage of a two handed weapon, but a Holy Axiomatic Frost Dagger in each hand will pump out way more damage than you'd think once you close with the foe.

 

Yeah I never realized how useful those spells were until recently. Even the Grease spell is helpful especially at low levels.

And at higher levels Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration are a must if you wanna deal spell damage to bad guys with Spell Resistance.