Deimonos’ post got me thinking about other mistakes that new players make, and here is another big one we see all the time.
The monsters in Badlands RPG are all fairly powerful, and most of them have very good Armor Classes. The monsters that you will be expected to kill while leveling up to and beyond level 40 especially all have very decent Armor Classes. If you are playing a Melee build and your character cannot hit your opponent, you have some serious problems. This problem is especially bad if you are playing a Str based build where you are relying on your ability to kill them quickly before you take too much damage due to your low AC.
That being said, I believe that the single biggest mistake we see Melee builds making is not incorporating any way to “buff” their Attack Bonus. Some do it out of ignorance, and some are just fucking morons (Shadow521899) who “Prefer Natural Power” (his direct quote) and don’t want buffs. Either way, not being able to buff your attack bonus even as much as 5 points can seriously lower the effectiveness of your build and make the difference between you being a powerhouse that others want to Xp with or an Xp leech that make others groan when they see you.
There are many different ways of ‘Buffing’. One of the most effective is to work some levels of Cleric into your build. Having 15 levels of Cleric and a Wisdom of 16 will give you access to many different AB Buffs, for a minimum of +15 to attack and damage, not to mention all of the awesome utility spells (True Sight, ect) and healing spells. Another way to ‘Buff’ is with levels of Bard. Depending on how many levels of Bard you take, your 2 Bard Songs can make all the difference in a fight. Having 16 levels of Bard and using both “Bard Song” to buff yourself and “Curse Song” on your enemies will give you the equivalent of a +7 to attack, +3 to damage +7 to AC.
I hope this helps people think a little differently when designing their builds. If anyone has some suggestions as to how they incorporate buffs into their builds, let us know below :-)
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7 comments:
Deurack and Deimonos, excellent posts as usual. Unfortunatly back in the day I was one of those players that tried to spread points around leading to the eventual failiar of said character.
BadLands needs to have a disclaimer stating that well rounded characters are doomed, please nerf most of your stats and max your main ability throughout the build.
I think people are so used to making well rounded characters they have a hard time focusing their attention on one ability, there are a TON of epic character builds that are well rounded, it's no surprise people get tunnel vision.
I still suck at building characters but at least I know the proper places to focus my ability scores, at least on BadLands that is.
Don't forget the +20 Attack Bonus cap. If you make a bard/cleric/pm and load up on buffs
+5 enhancement bonus on weapon
+6 Bardsong
+1 Bless
+1 Aid
+1 Prayer
+5 Divine Favor
+5 Divine Power
+2 Battle Tide
+5 Greater magic weapon
+20 True Stike
you won't get +51 to attack, you'll get +20.
Hmm, garble, I saw your post and got a little curious about it.
Deurack or anyone can and should correct me if I'm wrong but
1) Bard song can only raise one's AB at a maximum of +2.
2) You have to choose between getting +5 Enhancement on your weapon or use your own GMW spell; therefore having more room for elemental damage; because the upgraded and spell version don't stack. You can cast the spell on a weapon with only attack bonus though, as the name says, this particular upgrade only raises the weapon's attack bonus, not the damage.
3) Divine Power doesn't exactly gives you +5AB, it gives you an AB of a fighter of the same level, max level 20, since we know once they reach epic levels, all classes have the same BAB progression of +1AB/2lvls.
Ex: A cleric 20 has an BAB of +15, after using Divine Power it goes up to +20, a +5 enhancement. But a cleric 15/fighter 5 on the other hand has a BAB of +16. And it will get only +4 after casting the same spell.
4) I've read about this +20 attack bonus cap, but it doesn't apply on our server. A char can buff himself with all the cleric buffs mentioned above AND True Strike, becoming a mega powerhouse for 9 seconds.
Our good friend Deimonos is correct about the +20 Attack Bonus cap. It apparently does not apply to this server, because ‘True Strike’ counts towards the +20 cap, and you can buff up with all of the other spells and then use True Strike and you will in fact get the full +20.
Also, just clarify what I meant with the Bard Song and Curse Song ‘buffs’. I said you could get the equivalent of a +7 to Attack Bonus. What I meant was you can use ‘Bard Song’ on yourself to get a +2 to Attack Bonus, and then use ‘Curse Song’ on your opponent to give him a -5 to Armor Class. This would equal a +7 ‘swing’ in your favor.
There are likely many errors in my comment since I wrote it off the top of my head. But the numbers were just to illustrate the point.
I haven’t checked on badlands but in the original game I noticed that the +20 limit doesn’t show up on the character sheet. So the character sheet would show a higher AB than was shown in the combat window when it told you that you had missed. It’s cool that badlands doesn’t have the +20 AB cap. If that’s gone than a great smite build MIGHT be viable. With the +20 cap divine might is useless after +15 and doesn’t’ stack with divine wrath.
Before I spend 15 hours farming up a Pally/COT, are you completely sure the cap is gone?
At least true strike and cleric buffs do stack. But we are talking about AB buffs. With Divine Might a char adds his Charisma bonus to all weapon damage for a number of rounds equal to the charisma bonus. It isn't an AB bonus and/or damage buff like Divine Wrath..
Hiya Blade here, I have a char Paladin 18 / COT 15 /WM 7
I get +7 Divine Damage added when i cast Divine Wrath (3 + 2 + 2)and +9 Divine Damage added when i use my Divine Might. Or at least, that is what it says in my Char Sheet.
I'm not very good at the numbers that are generated as we fight, but i will try to provide answers to further questions. Hope this provides some insight Garble.
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