Let's Vote! Mask of the Betrayer!

Xiao_Caity

As mentioned in my Arcanum LP thread, my copy of Arcanum is acting like a class-A bitch. And has been for the better part of a week. Needless to say, this does not make me a happy Xiao.

However, grumpy Xiao is also crazy-prepared Xiao, and I have a whole list of backup games to LP until I get the bitch sorted - or until someone else volunteers to save Pixie from psycho manipulative pyromaniac hell.

And top of the list the an incredibly awesome expansion campaign to a horrendously poor original campaign - Mask of the Betrayer, the first expansion to the notoriously slow, frustrating and poorly conceived OC for Neverwinter Nights 2.

MotB is everything NWN2 wasn't. It's got a tight plot, really fun, interesting NPCs, an Influence system that doesn't suck Ao's Overgodly Balls, some absolutely gorgeous areas that take full advantage of the game's engine, and a tone that makes the game both intensely personal and frighteningly epic at the same time.

In other words, MotB is every Dungeon Master's dream campaign. :lol:

And y'all get to vote on how I tackle it!

First vote will be on class, but I'm asking for a little time to write up the classes I'm willing to use, because this is D&D and a quick Pros/Cons recee is required. So don't vote yet, I'll let you know when to start throwing opinions into the metaphorical ring.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:19 pm **Post subject:**

BARD
* Can't be Lawful
* Spontaneous Arcane Casting (With lots of tasty buffs)
* Reasonable Weapons and Armour
* Second Best Skill Set and Skill Points in the game
* Lore Bonuses
* Inspirations for extra buffs
* Bard Songs for even more buffs and a very nasty debuff

Pros
* Jack of All Trades
* Social Skills like WHOA
* Excellent Buffer
* Passable Combatant

Cons
* Unfocussed
* Their healing sucks
* Low HP for a melee combatant

Prestige Classes
* Arcane Archer (Elf or Half-Elf)
* Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep
* Red Dragon Disciple

CLERIC
* Any Alignment
* Lousy weapons but most armour
* Prepared Divine Magic with Spontaneous 'Conversion' for emergency Heals (Or Inflicts!)
* Domain Abilities
* Turn Undead

Pros
* Best healer in the game, full stop, end of story
* Divine magic means spellcasting in Full Plate

* Decent in Melee

Cons
* Low skill points
* Suck offensively until high levels
* There's a Cleric NPC and a Spirit Shaman NPC, so another Cleric isn't all that useful

Prestige Classes
* Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Monk first)

DRUID
* Must be at least partially Neutral
* Prepared Divine Spellcasting with Spontaneous Conversion for 'Summon Monster' spells
* Poor weapon choice, reasonable armour selection
* Animal Companion
* Lots of useful stuff for the outdoors
* Wild Shape (turn into animals!)
* Immune to Poison

Pros
* Amazing Summoners
* Reasonably talented melee combatant
* Animal Companion means free extra fighter
* Some nice buffs

Cons
* Very Restrictive Alignment
* Not much healing for a Divine Caster
* Stupidly limited weapon choice
* Animal companion can't be controlled

Prestige Classes
* Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Monk)

FAVOURED SOUL
* Any Alignment
* Good Saves across the board
* Spontaneous Divine Magic (cheesy but fun)
* Free Weapon Proficiency/Focus/Specialisation depending on diety
* Energy Resistance
* Free Haste spells at Level 17
* Damage Reduction

Pros
* Spontaneous Healing

* Free weapon training depending on diety
* Massive Saves
* Resistances and Damage Reduction

Cons
* Crappy Skill Points
* Awkward Spellcasting Stats (Charisma for spell level, Wisdom for power... it gets weird fast)

Prestige Classes
* Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Monk)

More in the next post...

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:40 pm **Post subject:**

MONK
* Must be Lawful
* High Saves across the board
* Lousy Weapon Selection, but that really doesn't matter
* No Armour
* Flurry of Blows/Ki Strike/Quivering Palm
* Evasion/Improved Evasion
* A metric fuck-ton of self-buffs

Pros
* A Monk is Jackie Chan incarnate :roll:

* d20 damage with one's hands, as opposed to a mere d8 with the Monk's best weapon
* Tiny Buffing Gods
* Define Epic

Cons
* No Armour
* Shitty weaponry
* Can be fiddly to use

Prestige Classes
* Duellist
* Invisible Blade
* Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Cleric, Druid or Favoured Soul)
* Shadowdancer

ROGUE
* Any Alignment
* Best Skill Set and Skill Points in the game, end of story
* Passable weapon selection
* Trapfinding
* Sneak Attack!
* Uncanny Dodge/Improved Uncanny Dodge
* Special Rogue-Only Feats from Level 10

Pros
* Skill Whores
* Only class able to do anything with traps
* Sneak Attack!!

Cons
* Low HP for a melee combatant
* Sneak Attack!!! only works on some enemies, and getting it to work on all enemies is difficult at best
* If they can't flank or get flanked themselves, they're utterly screwed

Prestige Classes
* Arcane Trickster (Multiclass with Sorcerer or Wizard)
* Assassin (Evil)
* Duellist
* Invisible Blade
* Shadowdancer

SORCERER
* Any Alignment
* Spontaneous Arcane Casting
* Familiar

Pros
* Spontaneous Casting is just plain more entertaining
* More Spells/Day than a Wizard
* Very Flexible

Cons
* Less Spells Known than a Wizard
* Learn spells slowly
* Can be tricky if you choose your spells on a whim or without planning

Prestige Classes
* Arcane Archer (Elf or Half-Elf)
* Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep
* Arcane Trickster (Multiclass with Rogue)
* Pale Master (Non-Good)
* Red Dragon Disciple

WARLOCK
* Chaotic and/or Evil
* Eldritch Blast
* Invocations/Eldritch Essences/Blast Shapes
* Lore Bonus
* Damage Reduction/Energy Resistance/Fiendish Resilience

Pros
* We will never, ever run out of magic, EVER
* Casting in light armour

* Dispels become a minor inconvenience
* Self-Buffing can be obscene
* Insane damage once we hit Epic

Cons
* Crappy damage before Epic
* Extremely limited selection of Invocations
* No Prestige Classes (Not that we'll need them!)

WIZARD
* Any Alignment
* Prepared Arcane Magic
* Familiar
* Bonus Feats

Pros
* More Spells Known than the Sorcerer
* Metamagic Feats turn you into a tiny god
* Specialisation actually means something

Cons
* Less Spells/Day than the Sorcerer
* We define Squishy Mage
* No weapons worth jack
* No Armor

Prestige Classes
* Arcane Archer (Elf or Half-Elf)
* Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep
* Arcane Trickster (Multiclass with Rogue)
* Pale Master

Muro · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:44 pm **Post subject:**

Favoured Soul sounds fun for a LP.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:47 pm **Post subject:**

*pants* Alright, that's done. Vote time!

Look at the classes outlined above. Those are the ones I'm willing to play. Decide which one you want to see me play, make a note on whether any of the available Prestige Classes sound interesting, vote. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves on this, incidentally, because I may be able to suggest alternatives should we get deadlocked on something, and because you people are fun when you argue.

Once I feel we've got a class/classes/setup planned, I'll work out which races will fit it and the voting will begin again.

And now, I sleep. Damn you, frail human form!

Dark Elf · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:42 pm **Post subject:**

Warforged Soulknife.

Failing that, I'd like to see a melee oriented bard. Get the Battle Caster feat, multiclass to Barbarian to get some nice rage going and craft yourself a suit of mithril full plate (counts as Medium Armour, being mithril and all).

rroyo · **Joined:** Oct 14, 2006 **Posts:** 3292

Favoured Soul

Mesteut · **Posted:** Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:59 pm **Post subject:**

Rogue. Go for a Duelist with the Prestige Classes.

magikot · **Joined:** Aug 29, 2003 **Posts:** 1670

Bard!

Charonte · **Posted:** Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:18 am **Post subject:**

Bard?

Osiris · **Joined:** Jul 10, 2009 **Posts:** 38

To quote the second Gamers movie, "Dude, bards suck".

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Thu Dec 03, 2009 4:27 am **Post subject:**

You've seen Dorkness Rising? Awesome! Best gamer movie ever, in my opinion.

Osiris · **Joined:** Jul 10, 2009 **Posts:** 38

I'm partial to the first one. Personally.

Ramidel · **Joined:** Nov 20, 2008 **Posts:** 322

Favoured Soul.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Thu Dec 03, 2009 4:09 pm **Post subject:**

Additional Note: I've opened voting to some guys and gals over at True Magic to get some different opinions, so voting might take a smidgen longer than it did with the Arcanum thread. Besides, those guys are pretty damn funny, and the really good questions will get answered in the main thread.

Dark Elf · **Posted:** Thu Dec 03, 2009 4:23 pm **Post subject:**

You don't like the warrior classes, do you?

Wolfsbane · **Joined:** Nov 11, 2005 **Posts:** 4256

Go red dragon disciple via warrior -> bard -> frenzied berserker, and then go blackguard to get some of the awesomest criticals in the history of...

No warrior classes, huh? Forget what I said, then.

Osiris · **Joined:** Jul 10, 2009 **Posts:** 38

I have an affinity for Mage classes. But I generally try to play a game through with a warrior or range class first.

I'd try Druid from that list, to test out the Summoning aspect. But I'd be fearful of the Druid being too weak defensively. You stated reasonable armor. So... Why not?

Grossenschwamm · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 12:48 am **Post subject:**

Warforged Monk. You start out with slightly higher natural armor (+2), and it's supplanted by the AC bonus you gain from either your wisdom or dexterity, as it won't stack with anything else . On top of that, your character won't fatigue, is naturally immune to disease and poisons (that aren't magical), and you can gain feats such as silver or cold-iron tracery that will bypass damage reduction from devils and demons, with your unarmed attacks.
Unfortunately, normal warforged can't wear magical armors of any type (no shirts of defense on your monk, ect.). So, to bypass THAT, you can actually have a feat when you start out to take away the natural armor bonus inherent to the warforged, allowing you to wear all manner of magical accoutrements.

Dark Elf · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 12:58 am **Post subject:**

Problem is, Warforged do not appear in NWN2, as it takes place in the Forgotten Realms, not Eberron. :-p

A guy in my PnP group is playing one of them robotic fuckers though. My necromancer accidentally hit him with a Ray of Sickness this weekend (which was fortunate, seeing as he couldn't be affected by it).

Grossenschwamm · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 1:30 am **Post subject:**

Dark Elf wrote:

Problem is, Warforged do not appear in NWN2, as it takes place in the Forgotten Realms, not Eberron. :-p

A guy in my PnP group is playing one of them robotic fuckers though. My necromancer accidentally hit him with a Ray of Sickness this weekend (which was fortunate, seeing as he couldn't be affected by it).

Aha, and I see the error of my ways; always read the OP.
The warforged are my favorite race, and the monk is my favorite class.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:03 am **Post subject:**

Warforged are fun, aren't they? We have a Warforged Warlock in my group, who abuses Charm like you wouldn't believe. He always says 'Would you kindly?' when he uses it, and the rest of the party hasn't cottoned on just yet.

I'll count your vote as one for Monk, then.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 10:50 am **Post subject:**

Whelp, unless there are some more votes tonight while I'm checking to see what changes the update wrought, we seem to have a tie between the Bard and the Favoured Soul. As I've played a million Bards (I much preferred them when they could still cast Fireball, but I'll take what I can get), we'll probably see our dear character as a Favoured Soul.

So, stabbin' faces in the name of our god, eh?

I'm off to look at the different races and pick a few options for us to work with. Luckily, what works for Favoured Soul works nicely for Bards too, so either way...

Many People wrote:

Why no warrior classes?

Warrior classes (except for Monks) tend to suffer dramatically in Epic Level play, and with any luck we'll be epic level pretty quickly! In fact, apart from a few feats for the ol' Critical Hit goodness, they don't get much at all. And unfortunately, things that are immune to Sneak Attack! tend to be immune to criticals too.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 1:36 pm **Post subject:**

Vote Time Again!
It's a multiple vote!
1. Pick a race from the following list
2. Do we want to take a Prestige Class or stay solidly within our chosen class?
3. Do we want to be Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic?
4. Do we want to be Good, Neutral or Evil?

Aasimar
* Descended from Celestials
* +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
* Darkvision
* Resistant to Acid, Cold and Electricity
* Cast Light 1/day as a Sorcerer of equal level to their Character Level
* +2 on Listen and Spot checks
* Level Adjustment of +1

Drow
* +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
* Immune to Sleep effects, +2 to saves against Enchantment effects
* Bonus Weapons: Longsword, Longbow, Shortsword, Shortbow
* +2 on Listen, Search and Spot checks
* Cast Darkness 1/day and See Invisibility 1/day as a Sorcerer of equal level to their Character Level
* Darkvision
* Spell Resistence
* +2 to Will saves against magic
* -2 to attacks rolls, saves and skill checks in sunlight
* Level Adjustment of +2

Gold Dwarf
* +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity
* Darkvision
* +2 to Search checks while indoors
* +2 to Lore
* Dwarven Waraxes count as Martial Weapons, not Exotic
* +2 to saves vs. Poison and Spells
* +4 to AC vs. Giants

Half-Elf
* No Stat Changes
* Immune to Sleep, +2 to saves against enchantment effects
* Low-Light Vision
* +1 to Listen, Search and Spot

Human
* No Stat Changes
* Bonus Feat at 1st Level
* +4 skill points at 1st Level, +1 skill point at every subsequent Level

Lightfoot Halfling
* +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength
* Small (+1 to AC and Attack, +3 to Hide checks, small weapons, reduced maximum carry weights)
* +2 to Move Silently, Listen
* +2 to saves vs. Fear
* +1 to attack rolls using Thrown Weapons and Slings
* +1 to all saving throws

Moon Elf
* +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution
* Immune to Sleep effects, +2 to saves against Enchantment effects
* Low-Light Vision
* Bonus Weapons: Longsword, Longbow, Shortsword, Shortbow
* +2 to Listen, Move Silently, Spot

Strongheart Halfling
* As Lightheart Halfling, but replace the saving throws with a Bonus Feat at Level 1

Sun Elf
* As Moon Elf, but +2 Intelligence instead of Dexterity

Vote away!

Arthgon · **Posted:** Fri Dec 04, 2009 1:50 pm **Post subject:**

1. Golden Dwarf

2. Take a Prestige Class

3. Neutral

4. Evil

Let's Vote! Mask of the Betrayer!

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