AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic - The Official Teach a Man to Fish topic (Build topic):

Very_Svensk wrote:

Stop using the term "Powerbuild". Just call it What it is - Experience. Those who know nwn and amia have learned the system and use it to our advantage. Its like knowing math and use it to land a Well paid job.

Those who can't do "math" will of course whine.

Pretty much uncalled for. People who -truly- know Amia and NwN know that you can't win the game, and build responsibly to a plan that supports the RP they intend to commit to and don't need to make asinine assertions about how good they are. They also call a horse, a horse, calling it a camel is fallacious.

But if you call it a Camel on Wednesday, you can have a hump day joke

Hump what? Is this some 'murican humor?

Hump Day. You know, like the day I come to hump yer mum.

Why hump da mom? I'm way cuter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgk-lA12FBk

I had to.

I cannawt playz da youtubez at werk.

Naivatkal wrote:

Hump Day. You know, like the day I come to hump yer mum.

My mom would leave you a broken wreckage of masculinity scattered across the Australian outback.

Now you're just complimenting him. Saying he has masculinity to strew about!

Aeqvinox wrote:

[post]

Thank you. Challenge completed; winner is Aeqvinox!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SBGbbJ8ifY

Okay pro n con's guys.

I was originally going 25bard/5kc now considering going 21bard/4ftr/5kc or 23bard/2rogud/5kc.

Quick questions, folks. I'm fairly new here, and on my old server, I never played above level 13, being a low-mid magic server, and a very difficult level progression. (level 13 was after years of playing).

Now that I'm here, and epic levels are a thing that can happen, I built my favorite Druid/Ranger build. (1 ranger/Lots of Druid) and got to 1 ranger/20 Druid. Epic spells! I knew nothing about this, or how to go about it, so I read up in the left hand bar there, and apparently epic summons require a feat! That ... requires 20 wisdom. Oops.

So, at 18 wisdom at level 20, I clearly goofed up in my ability buying in order to take that particular path. If I want to fix this ... how many levels do I want to get stripped, in order to rebuild myself on the right path to get some epic summon action?

(I realize I'm probably missing a lot of info here, pardon my build noobishness)

If you just want a quick-fix, figure out how many times you increased wis at every 4 level mark, particularly if you did at level 20 and 16. If not, go down to just below 16 and you're set - just upgrade wis to 19 at level 16, and 20 at level 20. You'll want to find out what your starting wis was (check the sidebar on this site for Amia player tools, characters - it should have a record of your leveling) and ultimately if it was less than 15 at level 1 you'd need a full rebuild/delevel to fix it.

Now is as good a time as any as to pimp out your build proper, though - talk to some friends who know ranger/druid builds, figure out what you want, find out the best way to represent/have what you want. And ask around in this thread for stuff like standard ___ builds to work from. Though it helps to present an idea of what you're going for.

Awesome, thank you! I forgot about the sidebar option for checking what I did!
Much appreciated!

I totally forgot that I point two points into Con, starting at Ranger1/Druid11. So I'll basically need to go back to there, and re-level back up to get where I wanna be. Thanks again! *Facepalm*

Charles1810 wrote:

Okay pro n con's guys.

I was originally going 25bard/5kc now considering going 21bard/4ftr/5kc or 23bard/2rogud/5kc.

The 25 bard song makes a nice difference and having 24 levels of a caster class because of greater dispelling sure is nice too. Your haste lasts just a little wee bit longer and it is a pretty solid build.

It's up to you of course, but I do not regret going the 25/5 route.

DEX based Monks do not need Weapon Finesse to dual-wield kamas, right? I have only ever done unarmed monks and one with a qstaff.

Definitely need weapon finesse for dex based with kamas or unarmed, unless you don't intend to hit anything.

Oh wow, I guess my unarmed DEXer does have Finesse. For some reason I thought monks were exempt with unarmed and DEX lol

Hi guys,
between terrifying rage and thundering rage..

which is

1) Better for PVE (Boss hunting)
2) Better for PVP

Given the tradeoffs between both and assuming a character could choose one or the other but not both. Which would be the best choice?

Thundering, in most cases. It is dependent on the rest of the build, and also how the circumstances for PvP come about. If someone isn't mindblanked, then you're pretty much going to succeed in terrifying the hell out of them with a ridicu-DC on it.

Terrifying is amazing against anything that doesn't have fear immunity. So if you're not fighting paladins, you'll be fine.

Always build for the worst case scenario:

You don't have scrolls to strip mind protection
They have Mindblank
Terrifying Rage is the most terrible ability ever conceived for PvM

= Thundering Rage

Thundering Rage is better in my opinion, despite its horribly steep prequisites in comparison to Terrifying Rage. The latter is a cheesy PvP utility and always made so little sense to me lore-wise. I can appreciate magical fear, as that gives me more flexibility to roleplay it out, but being forced to roleplay going entirely catatonic in the close vicinity of a halfling barbarian with Epic Skill Focus: Intimidate and mundane Terrifying Rage... ugh, just no.

I'm back.

I plan to run an Underdark character, but I'm not entirely comfortable with traversing drow lore just yet. So I settled on a svirfneblin (I don't think they get enough credit). Thing is, I was planning on a gish (Fighter/Wizard with a focus on illusion that isn't necessarily predicated on feats or specialization, naturally), but looking at their racial ability modifiers...is that even possible? The easiest route would be to be dexterity based, I should think, but that net -4 to constitution hurts. Any tips?

The ECL will make it a loving hell to play.

For Your first UD character i recommend Drow(They are easy to get into and mostill welcomed of all undrrdark races)
I play a drow and i read zero (0) Lore beforehand.

Otherwise there is:
Duergar
Kobold
Goblin
Orog
Half-Drow
Shadow/Grey elf
And more

Last edited by Vinasius on Tue, Dec 24 2013, 3:06 AM, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for the feedback regarding, Thundering Rage VS Terrifying Rage.

I have another question I would appreciate some advise on.
For a sorcerer..which level 9 spells are critical as we can only choose 3..

I reckon I chose, Mords, Dominate Monster and Timestop.....

though I find that I hardly use Dominate and Timestop....are they useful...?

Would I be better with Gate Spell? Is the Gate Spell useful? I mean I already have EMD but sometimes when that summon gets destroyed then I'm lost for a meatshield... what about Black Blade, is black blade good for boss hunting? Ie. VS loot/pirate/windy/ ? Does it have any use for pvp?

Also I can't find much use for timestop that GS does not already do....which is to escape and run ..can someone please advise.

I find myself lost at choosing decent level 9 spells.

Many thanks

Mords + Timestop + Black Blade.

Gate sucks. Your funny mummy dust is 10 times better. Black Blade is the best summon in game.. shame it lasts so short and needs concentration

Vinasius wrote:

I have another question I would appreciate some advise on.
For a sorcerer..which level 9 spells are critical as we can only choose 3..

I find myself lost at choosing decent level 9 spells.

Many thanks

You will need to use a different set while leveling then when you're just cruising to hunt at level 30 or to help others, to boss hunt. 2 different sets really.

GreatPigeon wrote:

Vinasius wrote:

I have another question I would appreciate some advise on.
For a sorcerer..which level 9 spells are critical as we can only choose 3..

I find myself lost at choosing decent level 9 spells.

Many thanks

You will need to use a different set while leveling then when you're just cruising to hunt at level 30 or to help others, to boss hunt. 2 different sets really.

Thanks Great Pigeon / Svensk so now at the level 30, rping/bosshunting/pvp stage which set should I choose.

Overall useless
Average
Very Good

Bigby's crushing hand - Doesn't penetrate Damage reduction; Breaks when you do something other then "Concentrating". Works like the Black Blade of Disaster and thus using even a Healing-kit breaks the focus. Otherwise good 1 vs 1. People with Freedom are not paralyzed, only immobilized. If they use a Restoration scroll the effects wears off.

Black blade of disaster - Mandatory in my honest Opinion. DC 10+ Caster level One hit: Kill. A level 30 Caster has a BBoD that has DC 40 One hit: Kill. Slaughters everything. Suffers a concentration check, so you cannot do anything else while having the summoned blade out.
Useful in nearly all epic level dungeons either as a grinder, or as a tank in the abyss (You run ahead with the blade which soaks up the damage)

Dominate monster - Needs Epic Spell focus Enchantment to work properly. Only causes Daze effects vs PC's which can be removed by lesser restoration / restoration / Mindblank. If you mange to dominate an abyssal creature (Those without mind-immunity) you have a sick murdering machine you can re-Dominate once the effects wears off.

Energy drain - Only real use is vs PC's, but it requires a fortitude save and vs pc's you are better off spamming IGMS, Thunderclap and Bigby's.

Gate - Mummy dust is 10x times better. BBoD is 10x better. It's a round/Level based summon that has even lower damage and survivability then Summon creature IX. Do not take this

Greater spell mantle - Empowered Spell mantle is better and occupied the same slot. Source

Meteor swarm - Respects Evasion and does 50% blunt damage (Which doesn't penetrate damage reduction and 50% fire damage which 9/10 mobs on amia is immune to. Doesn't affect Mobs/pc's in a 5 yard area around the caster. Save is reflex, too, which makes it worthless.

Mordenkainen's disjunction - Good vs everything. Reduces Spell resistance (Even against drow / Svirf) does not reduce monks spell resistance. Strips up tp 8 spells or 2 spells in a Colossal Area. Can be used to counterspell ALL Spells.

Power word, kill - Useless. Does nothing if the enemy has more then 1 point above the HP threshold. Most mobs / PC's on amia have 300 and above in health so its better to fire another IGMS instead of wasting a spellslot with this spell.

Shapechange - Transforms you into a weak version of red dragon, fire giant, balor, death slaad, or iron golem. Do not use. It only causes problems with your spells memorized / saved.

Summon creature IX - Good before you get a decent duration of BBoD and until you get Mummy dust. After that you never look back.

Time stop - Escape mechanism. Buff mechanism. Attack-Mechanism (You stack up Edward's black tentacles, grease, Web, Cloud of bewilderment underneath your time-stopped enemies. Can be cast repeatedly until you run out of spellslots). Probably the best spell in the game with the coolest VFX.

Wail of the banshee - Usable if you have Epic spell focus Necromancy though generally useless since PC's and Mobs on amia have sky-high Fortitude saves.

Weird - Usable if you have Epic spell focus Illusion though generally useless since PC's and Mobs on amia have sky-high Fortitude saves. Can be botted to do 20d5 Negative Energy damage and Fear.
Horrid Wiltering trumps the spell in terms of damage thought, and is one slot lower and does 25d5 damage instead of 20d5

Bot-Paged spells (Meaning they can be changed to do something else) Transmutation book required.

Very_Svensk wrote:

Shapechange - Transforms you into a weak version of red dragon, fire giant, balor, death slaad, or iron golem. Do not use. It only causes problems with your spells memorized / saved.

Terra_777 wrote:

I've re-enabled restoring lost spellslots when unshifting/unpolymorphing.

Spellslots are restored when using these spells now.

The forms are still weak as fuck. You're better of casting Tenser's transformation. Worthless use of a sorcerer's level 9 circle of spells.

Of course, of a build's point of view. But if Shapechange/Polymorph was going to be used, I only wanted to let whomever read the above know that they now are not a pain in the rear anymore with spellslots.

And I would agree with most of what was said in Svensk's post. Though, don't restrain yourself to take spells for the flavour.

Murex wrote:

Bravo21 wrote:

LoL... Strength based Monk with DevCrit, offensive problem solved. Doing 40+ damage a hit 6 or 7 times a round and extra powers like axiomatic strike make it over kill.

But you trade mediocre offense for all the things that monks are good at, so you may as well be a weapon master or something instead.

I think axiometric strike is one of the better techniques (it is actually used) but something very much like this technique for higher monk levels would be nice. Maybe 1d4 instead of 1d3, and works on all alignments. This wouldn't be a huge, overpowered technique in my opinion.

The Monk Ability that does divine damage (Axiomatic Strike) vs Chaotic is incredible actually. Vs nearly ALL bosses (Save for the old celestial) it could cause 30d3 (30-90 damage) on bosses.
That beats them in 10-11 rounds.

Works vs

Doesn't work vs

Elemental boss under Amia forest ruins

"Old celestial"

THERE IS SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW ABOUT HERE?!

Ice wrote:

"Old celestial"

THERE IS SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW ABOUT HERE?!

I was referring to the now removed instance area of Actand where legions of Angels battled Demons/Possibly devils. I am glad it was removed because it was very messy lore-wise.

Ah, ah. 'kay. I was thinking the same, but I never got to see it for myself - The Bastion got removed before I had the chance to explore it.

Three things,

1. Shapechange - Red Dragon is not useless. You can use it in conjunction with True Strike potions and (I)KD against Shadowdancers, for example. It's not as weak as you think.

2. Time Stop and Evards - i'm fairly certain there is a rather harsh limit on how many AoE duration spells you can stack on top of each other. I tested it a few times with a selection of AoE spells, and once you place a 3'rd spell on the ground, one of the previous ones stops working.

3. Weird - the BoT version has roughly the same fear DC without ESF, as the actual Fear spell with ESF. Then again, the way the spell works is weird; i haven't used it all that much, and only in pve, but sometimes it seems not to do anything at all vs certain things, but maybe that's caused by some immunities *shrugs*.

Overneath wrote:

I'm back.

I plan to run an Underdark character, but I'm not entirely comfortable with traversing drow lore just yet. So I settled on a svirfneblin (I don't think they get enough credit). Thing is, I was planning on a gish (Fighter/Wizard with a focus on illusion that isn't necessarily predicated on feats or specialization, naturally), but looking at their racial ability modifiers...is that even possible? The easiest route would be to be dexterity based, I should think, but that net -4 to constitution hurts. Any tips?

Svirfneblin are -2 CON
Wiz 26/Ranger1/Rogue1
Easiest route
Lore sensible build

If your not 100% set on playing a Svirfneblin then I would suggest you look at a Duergar Wizard.
Wizards are highly respected within Duergar Clans for both their magic ability and expertise in smiting enchanted items. It's only those narrow minded treasonous shield dwarves that fear magic and fail to see it's value.

Duergar are +2 CON
Immunity to Poison, Paralysis, Phantasmal Killer (Underrated PvM and PvP Benefits)
Invisibility Widget (Clutch)
No ECL anymore!

I know the Duergar will be easier to level up. And you can pick your poison: Tank Wizard, Spell Sword with Battle Axe, Wizard/Shadow Dancer, A pure Wizard Runecaster!. Lots of possibilities.

Duegar are a good safe UD race to start for UD beginners, unless you want to do what I did, jump into Drow without knowing a single thing

Also if you have any questions on lore in the UD I will happily help ya out, just shoot me a message in game or PM on the forums.

MoshingChris wrote:

Always build for the worst case scenario:

You don't have scrolls to strip mind protection
They have Mindblank
Terrifying Rage is the most terrible ability ever conceived for PvM

= Thundering Rage

Terrifying Rage can work on a Barb with 6 SD levels and one level of Wizard. If initial rage doesn't work to scare the opponent due to mindblank, use a mord scroll on them. With a high enough Inimidate, there will be no chance of anyone saving a roll.

Never tested this build out, and I'm not really into Barbs, but I think that can work.

How does 23 Barbarian 1 Wizard 6 SD make any sense whatsoever? And how does one get terrified of something they can't see or hear? Are you sure you're on the right server, Kylex?

Even if this thread is meant for mechanical mumbo-jumbo, this is still Amia. A server that revolves around roleplay first and foremost. Therefore the advise given in this thread should reflect upon the nature of this server.

Shroud wrote:

How does 23 Barbarian 1 Wizard 6 SD make any sense whatsoever? And how does one get terrified of something they can't see or hear? Are you sure you're on the right server, Kylex?

Well, I never tried to play one. I'll give you that. Just thought it may work if nobody saw your barb before he went into rage. Seems like a strange build for sure, but I was thinking that it could work mechanically. If I'm wrong, then so be it.

Merry Christmas (it just became Christmas day here), I have an odd request.

I can't seem to make a build plan that has:

human race (no subrace)

7 WM levels
15+ barbarian levels
Feat: Terrifying Rage
Feat: Mighty Rage

I just can't get it. I can't get the stats for Mighty Rage. Feel free to add in a third class, bearing in mind this build is for an Uthgardt Northman warrior, who's supposed to be a living weapon and have a strong misunderstanding of magic - so ranger -might- work, but fighter is what I've been toying with. I need 21 STR and 21 CON, natural, to get Mighty Rage, and 13 INT and DEX for Weapon Master levels, and I just can't get the stats to work (yes, I'm taking into account Great Strength and Great Constitution).

Can anyone make that build work, or is it actually mechanically impossible?

Is a scimitar-wielding Monk/Fighter/Weaponmaster doable? Dex based of course.

It is doable, but if you are a monk why pick a scimitar? I would honestly do quarterstaff in order to get the full monk attacks per round. Also I totally wish Monk attacks per round counted with any weapons that the Monk uses. I would love to do a tai chi sword wielding monk

You could make a WM using that concept?

For the Monk/Fighter/WM, actually works best as a STR build if you're going Scimitar or Quarterstaff. 21 Monk, 7 WM, 2 Fighter. You can lose some monk in order to pick up more fighter, but the glowy eyes are awesome.

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