I don’t mean to be flippant, but your main problem seems to be that you need to, uh, “git gud.”
If you knew Pathfinder, you’d know that just putting the heaviest armor you can find on a character isn’t always the right decision.
Also, yeah - a low-level Wizard only has a couple of spells, and you cast one. Why didn’t you rest? At 20 Int, you should have 2 1st-level spells available (unless you’re a specialist) and a whole bunch of cantrips. Rejigger your spell selection before going into the spider cave. [Ed: And burn through some scrolls! You should have some by now. And that’s what they’re for!]
Also, if you knew PF well, you’d know ...
A swarm made up of Tiny creatures takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage
... so, no, you can’t stomp on the spider swarm like Dirty Dancing and actually do any damage to it - it’s immune to weapon damage. They are, however, extremely susceptible to AoEs - like, say, those burning hands spells.
Surely you are aware, that a lot of the early combat spells are ranged touch spells? That use DEX to hit? That suffer from the -4 to hit if shooting into melee? And spider swarms can be dealt with by torches, and acid/fire flasks sold by the same guy who gives the quest. Swarms are immune to normal weapon attacks.
Honestly, it just seems like most of your issues with the game are a combination of the usual low level character weaknesses combined with not understanding the game mechanics.
If you want a blaster caster who is good with ranged touch spells, get Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and maybe Weapon Focus: Ray. You'll hit everything. It's a specific build choice.
And personally I've enjoyed the hours I've put into this so far way more than DOS and DOS2 combined, so I suppose YMMV.
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
I guess I had to put the note for the Stag Lord in my inventory before the story progressed. I have the whole map and most of the little side areas complete for that first area and like 5 days to kill the stag lord. I am really in love with the systems and the story. Those two elements have felt extremely good. Just wish there was more polish and at least one chance of a respec. I am using all the story characters as guinea pigs and then refining builds with the companions you can buy.
Well, after seeing that you have access to 2 clerics I decided instead to go with a Grenadier Alchemist. I'm hopeful that the bombs end up giving me near-blaster damage output, and this way I'm playing a class I otherwise never would. I've been clerics up and down D&D but there's no Alchemist in 5e (Artificer is close but seems bad).
So far the bombs have seemed pretty good, and getting the bonus so they don't hurt my party was huge. Kinda regret tanking Strength though since I was hoping to use a longbow, but I've only found composite ones so far. Guess I'll stick with my crossbow for now.
Surely you are aware, that a lot of the early combat spells are ranged touch spells? That use DEX to hit? That suffer from the -4 to hit if shooting into melee? And spider swarms can be dealt with by torches, and acid/fire flasks sold by the same guy who gives the quest. Swarms are immune to normal weapon attacks.
Honestly, it just seems like most of your issues with the game are a combination of the usual low level character weaknesses combined with not understanding the game mechanics.
If you want a blaster caster who is good with ranged touch spells, get Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and maybe Weapon Focus: Ray. You'll hit everything. It's a specific build choice.
And personally I've enjoyed the hours I've put into this so far way more than DOS and DOS2 combined, so I suppose YMMV.
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
I finally figured out what people's problem with Valerie was. As soon as you get her, she's in Medium encumbrance, which causes a variety of problems. Tower shields weigh 45 fucking pounds, so it's hard to get her to light without ditching it.
And just a general word of warning for minmaxing strength: you have a personal load rating and if you're medium or heavy the bonuses can be pretty stiff.
Surely you are aware, that a lot of the early combat spells are ranged touch spells? That use DEX to hit? That suffer from the -4 to hit if shooting into melee? And spider swarms can be dealt with by torches, and acid/fire flasks sold by the same guy who gives the quest. Swarms are immune to normal weapon attacks.
Honestly, it just seems like most of your issues with the game are a combination of the usual low level character weaknesses combined with not understanding the game mechanics.
If you want a blaster caster who is good with ranged touch spells, get Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and maybe Weapon Focus: Ray. You'll hit everything. It's a specific build choice.
And personally I've enjoyed the hours I've put into this so far way more than DOS and DOS2 combined, so I suppose YMMV.
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
That was something of a late add, to be fair.
How late? I downloaded the day it came out and got to that section the first day, so it was at least addressed in the first patch.
Surely you are aware, that a lot of the early combat spells are ranged touch spells? That use DEX to hit? That suffer from the -4 to hit if shooting into melee? And spider swarms can be dealt with by torches, and acid/fire flasks sold by the same guy who gives the quest. Swarms are immune to normal weapon attacks.
Honestly, it just seems like most of your issues with the game are a combination of the usual low level character weaknesses combined with not understanding the game mechanics.
If you want a blaster caster who is good with ranged touch spells, get Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and maybe Weapon Focus: Ray. You'll hit everything. It's a specific build choice.
And personally I've enjoyed the hours I've put into this so far way more than DOS and DOS2 combined, so I suppose YMMV.
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
That was something of a late add, to be fair.
How late? I downloaded the day it came out and got to that section the first day, so it was at least addressed in the first patch.
I think it was in the first or second hotfix, so honestly within two days of release or something like that.
Surely you are aware, that a lot of the early combat spells are ranged touch spells? That use DEX to hit? That suffer from the -4 to hit if shooting into melee? And spider swarms can be dealt with by torches, and acid/fire flasks sold by the same guy who gives the quest. Swarms are immune to normal weapon attacks.
Honestly, it just seems like most of your issues with the game are a combination of the usual low level character weaknesses combined with not understanding the game mechanics.
If you want a blaster caster who is good with ranged touch spells, get Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and maybe Weapon Focus: Ray. You'll hit everything. It's a specific build choice.
And personally I've enjoyed the hours I've put into this so far way more than DOS and DOS2 combined, so I suppose YMMV.
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
That was something of a late add, to be fair.
How late? I downloaded the day it came out and got to that section the first day, so it was at least addressed in the first patch.
I think it was in the first or second hotfix, so honestly within two days of release or something like that.
Even then, I don't think that's the issue, since people are still complaining about it. My guess is that a lot of people are clicking through the text, and this is a game where "Read the words" is a core part of playing it well.
I finally figured out what people's problem with Valerie was. As soon as you get her, she's in Medium encumbrance, which causes a variety of problems. Tower shields weigh 45 fucking pounds, so it's hard to get her to light without ditching it.
And just a general word of warning for minmaxing strength: you have a personal load rating and if you're medium or heavy the bonuses can be pretty stiff.
Re: Valerie:
For the penalties related to encumbrance, you end up taking the worst of the encumbrance penalties or your armor penalties. The penalties for Medium encumbrance are +3 Max Dex, -3 ACP, and it drops your movement speed from 30 to 20. That's roughly equivalent to the heavier end of light armors (chain shirt is +4/-2/30) or the majority of medium armors (Hide is +4/-3/20; scale and breastplates are +3/-4/20); so, in basically any medium armor, you'll end up with your armor's ACP driving the equation.
The real kicker for Valerie is that she's a defensively-focused fighter with a decent, but not exceptional Strength, and she's wielding a tower shield which carries a -2 penalty to her attack rolls. Accordingly, early-on, she can't hit for shit. Replace that tower shield with a heavy shield until she hits 5th-level, at which point her Fighter archetype gets the "Ignore the attack penalty on tower shields" ability.
Surely you are aware, that a lot of the early combat spells are ranged touch spells? That use DEX to hit? That suffer from the -4 to hit if shooting into melee? And spider swarms can be dealt with by torches, and acid/fire flasks sold by the same guy who gives the quest. Swarms are immune to normal weapon attacks.
Honestly, it just seems like most of your issues with the game are a combination of the usual low level character weaknesses combined with not understanding the game mechanics.
If you want a blaster caster who is good with ranged touch spells, get Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and maybe Weapon Focus: Ray. You'll hit everything. It's a specific build choice.
And personally I've enjoyed the hours I've put into this so far way more than DOS and DOS2 combined, so I suppose YMMV.
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
That was something of a late add, to be fair.
How late? I downloaded the day it came out and got to that section the first day, so it was at least addressed in the first patch.
I think it was in the first or second hotfix, so honestly within two days of release or something like that.
Even then, I don't think that's the issue, since people are still complaining about it. My guess is that a lot of people are clicking through the text, and this is a game where "Read the words" is a core part of playing it well.
Oh yeah, definitely. The few times I've had problems, it's been due to not paying attention, and re-reading dialogue or journal notes has gotten me through just fine. It's quite refreshing that the game doesn't hold your hand 100% of the time. It's one reason I like this, since it's dusting out those parts of my brain that were needed to play older RPGs well.
Hopefully they'll keep hammering out the worst bugs as they show up.
Well, after seeing that you have access to 2 clerics I decided instead to go with a Grenadier Alchemist. I'm hopeful that the bombs end up giving me near-blaster damage output, and this way I'm playing a class I otherwise never would. I've been clerics up and down D&D but there's no Alchemist in 5e (Artificer is close but seems bad).
So far the bombs have seemed pretty good, and getting the bonus so they don't hurt my party was huge. Kinda regret tanking Strength though since I was hoping to use a longbow, but I've only found composite ones so far. Guess I'll stick with my crossbow for now.
For bows, you always apply a Strength penalty to damage; composite longbows let you add your Strength bonus.
I finally figured out what people's problem with Valerie was. As soon as you get her, she's in Medium encumbrance, which causes a variety of problems. Tower shields weigh 45 fucking pounds, so it's hard to get her to light without ditching it.
And just a general word of warning for minmaxing strength: you have a personal load rating and if you're medium or heavy the bonuses can be pretty stiff.
Re: Valerie:
For the penalties related to encumbrance, you end up taking the worst of the encumbrance penalties or your armor penalties. The penalties for Medium encumbrance are +3 Max Dex, -3 ACP, and it drops your movement speed from 30 to 20. That's roughly equivalent to the heavier end of light armors (chain shirt is +4/-2/30) or the majority of medium armors (Hide is +4/-3/20; scale and breastplates are +3/-4/20); so, in basically any medium armor, you'll end up with your armor's ACP driving the equation.
The real kicker for Valerie is that she's a defensively-focused fighter with a decent, but not exceptional Strength, and she's wielding a tower shield which carries a -2 penalty to her attack rolls. Accordingly, early-on, she can't hit for shit. Replace that tower shield with a heavy shield until she hits 5th-level, at which point her Fighter archetype gets the "Ignore the attack penalty on tower shields" ability.
The way I have been handling Valerie is loading her with the best armor, tower shield, sword, and all the stat-boosting accessories. She's an unkillable beast, to the point that I have won multiple battles with everyone dying in a few rounds and Valerie just standing there killing until the combat is done.
And if something does take her out in a couple hits, that's a sign that I either need to focus on the fight or go level up.
I finally figured out what people's problem with Valerie was. As soon as you get her, she's in Medium encumbrance, which causes a variety of problems. Tower shields weigh 45 fucking pounds, so it's hard to get her to light without ditching it.
And just a general word of warning for minmaxing strength: you have a personal load rating and if you're medium or heavy the bonuses can be pretty stiff.
Re: Valerie:
For the penalties related to encumbrance, you end up taking the worst of the encumbrance penalties or your armor penalties. The penalties for Medium encumbrance are +3 Max Dex, -3 ACP, and it drops your movement speed from 30 to 20. That's roughly equivalent to the heavier end of light armors (chain shirt is +4/-2/30) or the majority of medium armors (Hide is +4/-3/20; scale and breastplates are +3/-4/20); so, in basically any medium armor, you'll end up with your armor's ACP driving the equation.
The real kicker for Valerie is that she's a defensively-focused fighter with a decent, but not exceptional Strength, and she's wielding a tower shield which carries a -2 penalty to her attack rolls. Accordingly, early-on, she can't hit for shit. Replace that tower shield with a heavy shield until she hits 5th-level, at which point her Fighter archetype gets the "Ignore the attack penalty on tower shields" ability.
Is that all I need to do? And not worry about her equip load? I notice her physical skills stats are for shit.
Recently got the game, and I am LOVING IT so much. Its the new Baldurs Gate that I was looking for, but harder and with less mercy.
I already started the game 3 times, first with a Ranger, but I always play ranger, so I dropped it qiuck to try something better.
I tried going evil wizard, chaotic evil, but the moral choices I get dont really represent my understanding of the alignment, I got no tank in the prologue (dwarf cleric, elf/undead inquisitor, barbarian), so while I can deal some damage, I got overrun by the second bandits fight, it became impossible to win, wich is something I missed from old games a lot, you can fuck up, and its irreversible.
My current run is with a neutral fighter/wizard, got the tank NPC, barbarian and cleric I think, and I killed every bandit group without much effort, same difficulty settings, same levels, progression etc. than in the previous runs.
OH! and, after you do the first mission thing, you travel south, and you find the old man speaking about the fog and stuff, I dont care what he is called or what he is doing, he is the red wizard to me, and will always be.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
I don’t mean to be flippant, but your main problem seems to be that you need to, uh, “git gud.”
If you knew Pathfinder, you’d know that just putting the heaviest armor you can find on a character isn’t always the right decision.
Also, yeah - a low-level Wizard only has a couple of spells, and you cast one. Why didn’t you rest? At 20 Int, you should have 2 1st-level spells available (unless you’re a specialist) and a whole bunch of cantrips. Rejigger your spell selection before going into the spider cave. [Ed: And burn through some scrolls! You should have some by now. And that’s what they’re for!]
Also, if you knew PF well, you’d know ...
A swarm made up of Tiny creatures takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage
... so, no, you can’t stomp on the spider swarm like Dirty Dancing and actually do any damage to it - it’s immune to weapon damage. They are, however, extremely susceptible to AoEs - like, say, those burning hands spells.
Reminds me of a pen and paper game I played where we ran into zombies with killer behives in their skills. No one had any flasks or aoe anything, and the only aoe I had memorized was fireball... Sorry Mr Fighter, but you convinced the DM to let you play a Dark Sun Mul, your character should be used to a moderate amount of being set on fire.
This is one of those games you just can't hack and slash through. If you go in swords-a-swinging, eventually you will find a foe (like the spider swarms) that is there simply to get you to think about strategy, or to understand that this is the reason for a balanced party setup.
Well, after seeing that you have access to 2 clerics I decided instead to go with a Grenadier Alchemist. I'm hopeful that the bombs end up giving me near-blaster damage output, and this way I'm playing a class I otherwise never would. I've been clerics up and down D&D but there's no Alchemist in 5e (Artificer is close but seems bad).
So far the bombs have seemed pretty good, and getting the bonus so they don't hurt my party was huge. Kinda regret tanking Strength though since I was hoping to use a longbow, but I've only found composite ones so far. Guess I'll stick with my crossbow for now.
For bows, you always apply a Strength penalty to damage; composite longbows let you add your Strength bonus.
Weak people use crossbows.
Hrrgh I knew I should have dropped Wisdom instead! So to be clear, attacking with a regular longbow is d20+BAB+Dex, while damage is 1d8+(Str, only if negative). A composite longbow is same attack roll, but damage is 1d8+Str?
I finally figured out what people's problem with Valerie was. As soon as you get her, she's in Medium encumbrance, which causes a variety of problems. Tower shields weigh 45 fucking pounds, so it's hard to get her to light without ditching it.
And just a general word of warning for minmaxing strength: you have a personal load rating and if you're medium or heavy the bonuses can be pretty stiff.
Re: Valerie:
For the penalties related to encumbrance, you end up taking the worst of the encumbrance penalties or your armor penalties. The penalties for Medium encumbrance are +3 Max Dex, -3 ACP, and it drops your movement speed from 30 to 20. That's roughly equivalent to the heavier end of light armors (chain shirt is +4/-2/30) or the majority of medium armors (Hide is +4/-3/20; scale and breastplates are +3/-4/20); so, in basically any medium armor, you'll end up with your armor's ACP driving the equation.
The real kicker for Valerie is that she's a defensively-focused fighter with a decent, but not exceptional Strength, and she's wielding a tower shield which carries a -2 penalty to her attack rolls. Accordingly, early-on, she can't hit for shit. Replace that tower shield with a heavy shield until she hits 5th-level, at which point her Fighter archetype gets the "Ignore the attack penalty on tower shields" ability.
Is that all I need to do? And not worry about her equip load? I notice her physical skills stats are for shit.
If she's wearing medium armor, you don't really need to worry about medium encumbrance. If she's wearing heavy armor, you don't really need to worry about heavy encumbrance (mostly variations on +1 or +0/-6 or -5/20 vs. +1/-6/20).
Her physical skills are shit because she's got decently weighty armor on (-4ish penalty) and is wielding a tower shield (-10ish penalty) and those stack. So, basically, it's hard to climb a mountain wearing armor and carrying around a piece of barely-portable wall. Consider unequipping those items before tackling difficult challenges.
Well, after seeing that you have access to 2 clerics I decided instead to go with a Grenadier Alchemist. I'm hopeful that the bombs end up giving me near-blaster damage output, and this way I'm playing a class I otherwise never would. I've been clerics up and down D&D but there's no Alchemist in 5e (Artificer is close but seems bad).
So far the bombs have seemed pretty good, and getting the bonus so they don't hurt my party was huge. Kinda regret tanking Strength though since I was hoping to use a longbow, but I've only found composite ones so far. Guess I'll stick with my crossbow for now.
For bows, you always apply a Strength penalty to damage; composite longbows let you add your Strength bonus.
Weak people use crossbows.
Hrrgh I knew I should have dropped Wisdom instead! So to be clear, attacking with a regular longbow is d20+BAB+Dex, while damage is 1d8+(Str, only if negative). A composite longbow is same attack roll, but damage is 1d8+Str?
Yeah - if they've implemented it correctly. I think they have, but it's so ingrained in me not to give weak people bows that I've never actually verified it. Easy way to check is to give Linzi a shortbow.
In D&D3.X / PF, the cheapest way to heal is using cast spells. Those, however, are an extremely limited resource early on.
The next cheapest is a wand of cure light wounds. They cost a base price of 750gp apiece, and get you 50 charges of healing, at 1d8+1 each. That's a total of 50d8+50 or an average of 275 points of healing, at a cost of 0.37 points of healing per gp. The main drawback here is that 750gp is a lot of money to spend at once and they're almost impossible to find at low-levels.
Contrast that with a potion of CLW - 50gp for 1d8+1, or 0.11 points of healing per gp.
"But wait," you might say, "that's just a weak potion! What about the stronger ones?" Well, the next step up are potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, which heal for 2d8+(1 per level, max+10). Potions of CMW come at Caster Level 3, so they're good for 2d8+3 - or an average of 12 points of healing! However, they cost (spell level * caster level * 50gp = 2 * 3 * 50 300gp apiece, or only 0.04 points of healing per gp. They are horribly inefficient, and it gets worse as you move up to higher-level spells. Compare that to just buying a bunch of potions of CLW, and you'll see that 2d8+3 points of healing lose out to 6d8+6 pretty handily in every metric that matters except for speed.
There is, however, a middle ground between potions (expensive!) and wands (cheap, but hard to find).
Scrolls! Scrolls of healing spells cost half as much as the same potion - 25gp for a scroll of CLW vs. 50gp for the potion - with the drawback that you need to have the spell on your class spell list (or pass a Use Magic Device check) to use them.
And early on, you can find a captive cleric who will set up shop at the trading post, and he's got stacks and stacks of scrolls - including 99 copies of Cure Light Wounds. These are your best choice for out-of-combat healing until you can start ginning up fresh wands of CLW.
So, in total:
Always have a couple potions of CLW on-hand, so that, worse comes to worst, you can use them to get a real healer up off the ground.
Try to use wands for out-of-combat healing, and save your spells to make combats shorter and thereby reduce the amount of total damage you end up taking.
If wands aren't available, then scrolls are your next cheapest option for out-of-combat healing.
Healing potions that aren't potions of CLW are treasure only; buy 6 potions of CLW instead of 1 potion of CMW.
I'm desperately trying to find something better than these Masterwork Daggers for my Rogue main character. He's still killing it with his flanking sneak attacks, but some more bonuses would be nice.
Everyone else has fancy + elemental damage or +2 weapons except for him
In D&D3.X / PF, the cheapest way to heal is using cast spells. Those, however, are an extremely limited resource early on.
The next cheapest is a wand of cure light wounds. They cost a base price of 750gp apiece, and get you 50 charges of healing, at 1d8+1 each. That's a total of 50d8+50 or an average of 275 points of healing, at a cost of 0.37 points of healing per gp. The main drawback here is that 750gp is a lot of money to spend at once and they're almost impossible to find at low-levels.
Contrast that with a potion of CLW - 50gp for 1d8+1, or 0.11 points of healing per gp.
"But wait," you might say, "that's just a weak potion! What about the stronger ones?" Well, the next step up are potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, which heal for 2d8+(1 per level, max+10). Potions of CMW come at Caster Level 3, so they're good for 2d8+3 - or an average of 12 points of healing! However, they cost (spell level * caster level * 50gp = 2 * 3 * 50 300gp apiece, or only 0.04 points of healing per gp. They are horribly inefficient, and it gets worse as you move up to higher-level spells. Compare that to just buying a bunch of potions of CLW, and you'll see that 2d8+3 points of healing lose out to 6d8+6 pretty handily in every metric that matters except for speed.
There is, however, a middle ground between potions (expensive!) and wands (cheap, but hard to find).
Scrolls! Scrolls of healing spells cost half as much as the same potion - 25gp for a scroll of CLW vs. 50gp for the potion - with the drawback that you need to have the spell on your class spell list (or pass a Use Magic Device check) to use them.
And early on, you can find a captive cleric who will set up shop at the trading post, and he's got stacks and stacks of scrolls - including 99 copies of Cure Light Wounds. These are your best choice for out-of-combat healing until you can start ginning up fresh wands of CLW.
So, in total:
Always have a couple potions of CLW on-hand, so that, worse comes to worst, you can use them to get a real healer up off the ground.
Try to use wands for out-of-combat healing, and save your spells to make combats shorter and thereby reduce the amount of total damage you end up taking.
If wands aren't available, then scrolls are your next cheapest option for out-of-combat healing.
Healing potions that aren't potions of CLW are treasure only; buy 6 potions of CLW instead of 1 potion of CMW.
I've found Positive Cleric channels nice for whole-party topping off.
In D&D3.X / PF, the cheapest way to heal is using cast spells. Those, however, are an extremely limited resource early on.
The next cheapest is a wand of cure light wounds. They cost a base price of 750gp apiece, and get you 50 charges of healing, at 1d8+1 each. That's a total of 50d8+50 or an average of 275 points of healing, at a cost of 0.37 points of healing per gp. The main drawback here is that 750gp is a lot of money to spend at once and they're almost impossible to find at low-levels.
Contrast that with a potion of CLW - 50gp for 1d8+1, or 0.11 points of healing per gp.
"But wait," you might say, "that's just a weak potion! What about the stronger ones?" Well, the next step up are potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, which heal for 2d8+(1 per level, max+10). Potions of CMW come at Caster Level 3, so they're good for 2d8+3 - or an average of 12 points of healing! However, they cost (spell level * caster level * 50gp = 2 * 3 * 50 300gp apiece, or only 0.04 points of healing per gp. They are horribly inefficient, and it gets worse as you move up to higher-level spells. Compare that to just buying a bunch of potions of CLW, and you'll see that 2d8+3 points of healing lose out to 6d8+6 pretty handily in every metric that matters except for speed.
There is, however, a middle ground between potions (expensive!) and wands (cheap, but hard to find).
Scrolls! Scrolls of healing spells cost half as much as the same potion - 25gp for a scroll of CLW vs. 50gp for the potion - with the drawback that you need to have the spell on your class spell list (or pass a Use Magic Device check) to use them.
And early on, you can find a captive cleric who will set up shop at the trading post, and he's got stacks and stacks of scrolls - including 99 copies of Cure Light Wounds. These are your best choice for out-of-combat healing until you can start ginning up fresh wands of CLW.
So, in total:
Always have a couple potions of CLW on-hand, so that, worse comes to worst, you can use them to get a real healer up off the ground.
Try to use wands for out-of-combat healing, and save your spells to make combats shorter and thereby reduce the amount of total damage you end up taking.
If wands aren't available, then scrolls are your next cheapest option for out-of-combat healing.
Healing potions that aren't potions of CLW are treasure only; buy 6 potions of CLW instead of 1 potion of CMW.
I've found Positive Cleric channels nice for whole-party topping off.
Yeah - I forgot to talk about that one. It's a very good whole-party top-off, though it's combat application is a bit limited (because it heals enemies, too, unless you pick up a particular feat).
Is there a good class/archetype for some kinda chosen king wizard/fighter?
Like the kinda nonsense where you have a sword and also decent magic, preferably not from being a paladin.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited October 2018
That feat is well worth it, on Tristain at any rate, IMHO. As is the extra channeling feat and there is at least a ring or two floating around out there that increase channeling charges too.
Then during harder fights you can right-click on Tristain's Channel Positive Energy ability and he will auto-cast it during the whole fight. It's like your entire party has a regen spell active!
@Albino Bunny what you're looking for (in the beginning anyway) is Magus. Swords, magic, general badassery. Later on Eldritch Knight would be the thing.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Also, yeah - a low-level Wizard only has a couple of spells, and you cast one. Why didn’t you rest? At 20 Int, you should have 2 1st-level spells available (unless you’re a specialist) and a whole bunch of cantrips. Rejigger your spell selection before going into the spider cave. [Ed: And burn through some scrolls! You should have some by now. And that’s what they’re for!]
A 1st-level Wizard with a 20 Intelligence (which is somewhat unlikely-to-have but not impossible) could cast 4 Burning Hands spells in a single adventuring day (assuming they're a generalist).
1 Base
+2 Int 20 (or +1 for a more reasonable Int 16-18)
---
3 memorized (or 2 for a more reasonable Int 16-18)
Then, if you chose an Arcane Bonded item, you can use it to "rememorize" one of those Burning Hands for 4 total casts in a single adventuring day.
Playing Wizards in d20 games is all about tailoring your spell loadout to what you're going to be fighting. In this case, you've gotten the intelligence (he he) you need before going into the cave, so make use of it!
Is there a good class/archetype for some kinda chosen king wizard/fighter?
Like the kinda nonsense where you have a sword and also decent magic, preferably not from being a paladin.
I went for the fighter/wizard combo, picked the fighter that uses light armour, and started as lvl1 fighter, since starting as lvl1 wizard is a pain.
High dex with the finesse trait, so you have better attack chances based on dex and good dodge. Ill probably leave it at fighter lvl 1 and just advance as wizard, BUT, since Im fighter, I get to use weapons without penalty.
I dont expect to tank anything, but it increases the wizards chances of survival, and if I run out of spells I can still fire ranged weapons decently. I land sword hits often, but its best not to risk getting hit too much.
Yes, with a quick verbal "boom." You take a man's peko, you deny him his dab, all that is left is to rise up and tear down the walls of Jericho with a ".....not!" -TexiKen
Is there a good class/archetype for some kinda chosen king wizard/fighter?
Like the kinda nonsense where you have a sword and also decent magic, preferably not from being a paladin.
The Magus class is basically a class specifically designed to be a caster/fighter. You can cast in light armor without spell failure and as you advance in levels, you gain the ability to cast in medium and heavy armor without spell failure. You also get abilities to let you cast and attack in the same turn.
The drawback is that you only get up to level 6 spells and your spell selection is more limited. And you get 3/4 BAB progression so you won't fight as well as a warrior class.
We haven't even got in to the meat of multi-classing or the advanced classes!
Multiclassing isn't as good in Pathfinder. All the classes have really good end level abilities that incentivize staying single class. And the prestige classes aren't as good as D&D.
Plus, this game doesn't have that many prestige classes.
Hmm so if I have a ranger with a longbow should I be upping his Strength? I thought I'd just want a high dex...
Well, yes and no.
You certainly don't want to tank your Strength, but neither should you ignore it.
Dexterity determines your chance to hit and therefore to do damage at all. Strength determines your damage (with a composite longbow), but that only happens after your attack successfully hits.
Accordingly, for an archer, I'd look to get my Strength to about 14 or 16 (resulting in +2 or +3 to damage, or the equivalent of the Weapon Specialization feat for a gold, rather than feat, cost) and then pump Dex after that.
Generally, the more sources of damage you have, the less important the Strength bonus is (e.g., a Rogue reliably sneak attacking with each shot is adding +3d6 damage or more, so +2 from Str isn't as critical). For Rangers, those bonuses are going to come from, e.g., your favored enemies, any spells, and your archery feats. Since those are either variable or limited, the Str bonus to damage is going to be comparatively more important.
I'm also finding that, as you get into the game, you start getting a good flow of stat boosting equipment. The major town vendors sell a good selection of boosts for most stats that go in different slots, and quest loot has given me several items that boost multiple stats.
Posts
I don’t mean to be flippant, but your main problem seems to be that you need to, uh, “git gud.”
If you knew Pathfinder, you’d know that just putting the heaviest armor you can find on a character isn’t always the right decision.
Also, yeah - a low-level Wizard only has a couple of spells, and you cast one. Why didn’t you rest? At 20 Int, you should have 2 1st-level spells available (unless you’re a specialist) and a whole bunch of cantrips. Rejigger your spell selection before going into the spider cave. [Ed: And burn through some scrolls! You should have some by now. And that’s what they’re for!]
Also, if you knew PF well, you’d know ...
... so, no, you can’t stomp on the spider swarm like Dirty Dancing and actually do any damage to it - it’s immune to weapon damage. They are, however, extremely susceptible to AoEs - like, say, those burning hands spells.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
The thing I have never got about the spider rage is that the quest giver provides you with a stack of acid potions, tells you in dialogue that you will need them, then says he can sell you more. It’s not like this is a surprise that comes out of nowhere.
So far the bombs have seemed pretty good, and getting the bonus so they don't hurt my party was huge. Kinda regret tanking Strength though since I was hoping to use a longbow, but I've only found composite ones so far. Guess I'll stick with my crossbow for now.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
And just a general word of warning for minmaxing strength: you have a personal load rating and if you're medium or heavy the bonuses can be pretty stiff.
How late? I downloaded the day it came out and got to that section the first day, so it was at least addressed in the first patch.
I think it was in the first or second hotfix, so honestly within two days of release or something like that.
Even then, I don't think that's the issue, since people are still complaining about it. My guess is that a lot of people are clicking through the text, and this is a game where "Read the words" is a core part of playing it well.
Re: Valerie:
For the penalties related to encumbrance, you end up taking the worst of the encumbrance penalties or your armor penalties. The penalties for Medium encumbrance are +3 Max Dex, -3 ACP, and it drops your movement speed from 30 to 20. That's roughly equivalent to the heavier end of light armors (chain shirt is +4/-2/30) or the majority of medium armors (Hide is +4/-3/20; scale and breastplates are +3/-4/20); so, in basically any medium armor, you'll end up with your armor's ACP driving the equation.
The real kicker for Valerie is that she's a defensively-focused fighter with a decent, but not exceptional Strength, and she's wielding a tower shield which carries a -2 penalty to her attack rolls. Accordingly, early-on, she can't hit for shit. Replace that tower shield with a heavy shield until she hits 5th-level, at which point her Fighter archetype gets the "Ignore the attack penalty on tower shields" ability.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Oh yeah, definitely. The few times I've had problems, it's been due to not paying attention, and re-reading dialogue or journal notes has gotten me through just fine. It's quite refreshing that the game doesn't hold your hand 100% of the time. It's one reason I like this, since it's dusting out those parts of my brain that were needed to play older RPGs well.
Hopefully they'll keep hammering out the worst bugs as they show up.
For bows, you always apply a Strength penalty to damage; composite longbows let you add your Strength bonus.
Weak people use crossbows.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
The way I have been handling Valerie is loading her with the best armor, tower shield, sword, and all the stat-boosting accessories. She's an unkillable beast, to the point that I have won multiple battles with everyone dying in a few rounds and Valerie just standing there killing until the combat is done.
And if something does take her out in a couple hits, that's a sign that I either need to focus on the fight or go level up.
Is that all I need to do? And not worry about her equip load? I notice her physical skills stats are for shit.
I already started the game 3 times, first with a Ranger, but I always play ranger, so I dropped it qiuck to try something better.
I tried going evil wizard, chaotic evil, but the moral choices I get dont really represent my understanding of the alignment, I got no tank in the prologue (dwarf cleric, elf/undead inquisitor, barbarian), so while I can deal some damage, I got overrun by the second bandits fight, it became impossible to win, wich is something I missed from old games a lot, you can fuck up, and its irreversible.
My current run is with a neutral fighter/wizard, got the tank NPC, barbarian and cleric I think, and I killed every bandit group without much effort, same difficulty settings, same levels, progression etc. than in the previous runs.
OH! and, after you do the first mission thing, you travel south, and you find the old man speaking about the fog and stuff, I dont care what he is called or what he is doing, he is the red wizard to me, and will always be.
Reminds me of a pen and paper game I played where we ran into zombies with killer behives in their skills. No one had any flasks or aoe anything, and the only aoe I had memorized was fireball... Sorry Mr Fighter, but you convinced the DM to let you play a Dark Sun Mul, your character should be used to a moderate amount of being set on fire.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Hrrgh I knew I should have dropped Wisdom instead! So to be clear, attacking with a regular longbow is d20+BAB+Dex, while damage is 1d8+(Str, only if negative). A composite longbow is same attack roll, but damage is 1d8+Str?
If she's wearing medium armor, you don't really need to worry about medium encumbrance. If she's wearing heavy armor, you don't really need to worry about heavy encumbrance (mostly variations on +1 or +0/-6 or -5/20 vs. +1/-6/20).
Her physical skills are shit because she's got decently weighty armor on (-4ish penalty) and is wielding a tower shield (-10ish penalty) and those stack. So, basically, it's hard to climb a mountain wearing armor and carrying around a piece of barely-portable wall. Consider unequipping those items before tackling difficult challenges.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Yeah - if they've implemented it correctly. I think they have, but it's so ingrained in me not to give weak people bows that I've never actually verified it. Easy way to check is to give Linzi a shortbow.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I went Cleric last time, but I’m feeling like some sort of magic this time around.
The next cheapest is a wand of cure light wounds. They cost a base price of 750gp apiece, and get you 50 charges of healing, at 1d8+1 each. That's a total of 50d8+50 or an average of 275 points of healing, at a cost of 0.37 points of healing per gp. The main drawback here is that 750gp is a lot of money to spend at once and they're almost impossible to find at low-levels.
Contrast that with a potion of CLW - 50gp for 1d8+1, or 0.11 points of healing per gp.
"But wait," you might say, "that's just a weak potion! What about the stronger ones?" Well, the next step up are potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, which heal for 2d8+(1 per level, max+10). Potions of CMW come at Caster Level 3, so they're good for 2d8+3 - or an average of 12 points of healing! However, they cost (spell level * caster level * 50gp = 2 * 3 * 50
There is, however, a middle ground between potions (expensive!) and wands (cheap, but hard to find).
Scrolls! Scrolls of healing spells cost half as much as the same potion - 25gp for a scroll of CLW vs. 50gp for the potion - with the drawback that you need to have the spell on your class spell list (or pass a Use Magic Device check) to use them.
And early on, you can find a captive cleric who will set up shop at the trading post, and he's got stacks and stacks of scrolls - including 99 copies of Cure Light Wounds. These are your best choice for out-of-combat healing until you can start ginning up fresh wands of CLW.
So, in total:
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Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I found a magic dagger pretty early on.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I've found Positive Cleric channels nice for whole-party topping off.
Yeah - I forgot to talk about that one. It's a very good whole-party top-off, though it's combat application is a bit limited (because it heals enemies, too, unless you pick up a particular feat).
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Like the kinda nonsense where you have a sword and also decent magic, preferably not from being a paladin.
Then during harder fights you can right-click on Tristain's Channel Positive Energy ability and he will auto-cast it during the whole fight. It's like your entire party has a regen spell active!
@Albino Bunny what you're looking for (in the beginning anyway) is Magus. Swords, magic, general badassery. Later on Eldritch Knight would be the thing.
A 1st-level Wizard with a 20 Intelligence (which is somewhat unlikely-to-have but not impossible) could cast 4 Burning Hands spells in a single adventuring day (assuming they're a generalist).
1 Base
+2 Int 20 (or +1 for a more reasonable Int 16-18)
---
3 memorized (or 2 for a more reasonable Int 16-18)
Then, if you chose an Arcane Bonded item, you can use it to "rememorize" one of those Burning Hands for 4 total casts in a single adventuring day.
Playing Wizards in d20 games is all about tailoring your spell loadout to what you're going to be fighting. In this case, you've gotten the intelligence (he he) you need before going into the cave, so make use of it!
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Yeah, like Axen said, this is the Magus class in a nutshell.
Cool gish tricks right out of the gate.
Comes in 4 flavors:
Base (my favorite)
Sorcerer-based instead of Wizard-based
Unarmored "Eastern" Flavored
Arcane Archer
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I went for the fighter/wizard combo, picked the fighter that uses light armour, and started as lvl1 fighter, since starting as lvl1 wizard is a pain.
High dex with the finesse trait, so you have better attack chances based on dex and good dodge. Ill probably leave it at fighter lvl 1 and just advance as wizard, BUT, since Im fighter, I get to use weapons without penalty.
I dont expect to tank anything, but it increases the wizards chances of survival, and if I run out of spells I can still fire ranged weapons decently. I land sword hits often, but its best not to risk getting hit too much.
The Magus class is basically a class specifically designed to be a caster/fighter. You can cast in light armor without spell failure and as you advance in levels, you gain the ability to cast in medium and heavy armor without spell failure. You also get abilities to let you cast and attack in the same turn.
The drawback is that you only get up to level 6 spells and your spell selection is more limited. And you get 3/4 BAB progression so you won't fight as well as a warrior class.
Which happens more often, baddies make attack rolls against her, or her make attack rolls against baddies?
I rest my case.
Multiclassing isn't as good in Pathfinder. All the classes have really good end level abilities that incentivize staying single class. And the prestige classes aren't as good as D&D.
Plus, this game doesn't have that many prestige classes.
Well, yes and no.
You certainly don't want to tank your Strength, but neither should you ignore it.
Dexterity determines your chance to hit and therefore to do damage at all. Strength determines your damage (with a composite longbow), but that only happens after your attack successfully hits.
Accordingly, for an archer, I'd look to get my Strength to about 14 or 16 (resulting in +2 or +3 to damage, or the equivalent of the Weapon Specialization feat for a gold, rather than feat, cost) and then pump Dex after that.
Generally, the more sources of damage you have, the less important the Strength bonus is (e.g., a Rogue reliably sneak attacking with each shot is adding +3d6 damage or more, so +2 from Str isn't as critical). For Rangers, those bonuses are going to come from, e.g., your favored enemies, any spells, and your archery feats. Since those are either variable or limited, the Str bonus to damage is going to be comparatively more important.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]