Confessions of a Noob

One more time I've tried to recreate my original NWN character. This time I might actually have a toon that's playable on BadLands RPG. This has caused me to reflect back on my noobness and how much I've learned over the years.

Qwildurn Bluemoon was my only character to complete the Neverwinter Nights campaign. After I finished the campaign, I started exploring online game worlds. Eventually I found BadLands (the original) and instantly knew I was home. Everything was just right, until I got killed by another player.

Qwildurn was, and therefore, always will be, an Elf. I'm not really sure why she is an Elf, but, this is role-play so I wanted to be something other than what my real life normally is. Since I am a male Human of average everything, my DND persona needed to be anything but....

I picked a Ranger/Bard mix. I actually had a neat write-up in my Bio about my parents being murdered and my search for revenge. Ranger and Bard were new classes for me and I thought that Ranger would give me access to all the divine spells similar to a Cleric. The dual-wield held it's attractions as well as the hide and search/spot abilities.

I had similar fantasies with Bard as well. Although a bit more realistic here, the end results were just as misconceived. I had thought that Bard would get me into all the arcane spells as if I was a true Mage with some good Rogue skills to boot.

The NWN manual talked about multi-class penalties but didn't say one word about Base Attack Penalties. To avoid the XP penalty, I kept my two classes equal.

I don't remember my attribute stats now, but they were probably 14's and 12's with a few 13's. Let's face it, this build needs every attribute in the book.

• Charisma for Bard spells.


• Wisdom for Ranger spells.


• Constitution so I can absorb some abuse.


• Strength so I can hit my enemy and do some damage.


• Dexterity so I can dodge attacks.


• Intelligence so I can solve life's problems as they come my way. Lets face it, DND is about solving problems so this is pretty important.

I went with a Katana and Kukri. I wanted the 1d10 base damage of the Katana and the critical threat range of the Kukri. The manual did talk about a small two-weapon penalty and suggested a Longsword / Shortsword combo.

I went with padded or leather armor because of the arcane spell casting failure as well as Rangers loosing their dual-wield functions with medium/heavy armor.

To do anything useful in the NWN campaign you need at least 5 skill points in every area. Certain NPC's just won't offer you quests without some otherwise useless skills. Since my Intelligence was somewhat low, I didn't have many points to spread around at level-up.

In game-play, I never found a Katana or Kukri worth using and usually used other weapons I wasn't trained in. I did the quest to improve my leather armor and it got turned into full plate that I couldn't wear because I didn't have that feat. I had to back-up to a saved game just get my nice leather back. GRRRR I finally got pissed enough about the whole deal that I used the editor to add some comparable weapons and armor similar to the stuff I had found but couldn't use.

When I saw Deekin get his red wings, I said, "OOOO I want some too!" I found that I had everything needed and started a third class immediately. Although all I really wanted was the cute red wings, the boost in strength and other stuff really helped my failing toon. If it wasn't for Daleon, I never would have made it very far.

When I finished the NWN campaign, I was around level 30. I had my cute red wings and could breath fire (the kind that can't do any damage). All three of my classes were equal and I really couldn't do much, I wasn't much better than a level 10 character in a level 30 world.


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Recreating this Qwildurn Bluemoon was not my first online toon, nor my first BadLands build. Maybe my third BadLands build. By this time I had learned a few more things about building characters.

• I had learned to skip certain skills and pump certain skills.


• But I still made the same basic mistakes as I had in the campaign.

I have re-made this basic build with more Ranger, less Ranger, more dex less str, more str less dex.... ect. ect. But always with the same basic results. Basic crap and something to be ashamed of.

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Recently, I decided to try it again. In concept, it just seems like a good platform, so, what did I do wrong and what should I change? I'm locked into the Elf, Ranger, Bard, RDD thing. After all, this is Qwildurn Bluemoon.

So, what else can I adjust or change?

• I picked the Dargonesti Elf subrace that had not been available before. This gave me a boost in key attributes: Str +4, Con +2, and Int -2.


• I picked a higher Base Attack over multi-class penalty. So what if I level slower, at least I can level.


• It seemed I had gotten more out of the Bard Spells than anything else, so I went with a lot of Bard levels.


• To maximize my BAB (Base Attack Bonus) I took 8 Ranger, 8 RDD, 4 Bard in the first 20 levels.


• I started Red Dragon Disciple as soon as possible to gain the added ability and AC boosts.


• I took only 9 Ranger levels. Ranger 9 is when you get the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting Feat. Ranger 10 would give me a third spell level, but nothing that would be beneficial.


• I finished my tenth RDD levels as soon as I could to get my wings. - LOL. - Actually, this time what I really wanted was the Int boost so I could get more skills.
  
• This leaves 21 Bard levels. High level Bard spells ROCK.


• To maximize the Bard Song / Curse Song, 55 Perform Skills (adjusted) are needed at Bard 21. I got 5 skills from my helm and 28 from my Charisma Bonus. The rest I had to take at level up.


• This time I took 25 UMD (Use Magic Device) Skills instead of 5. This allows me to use any scroll I find or buy without chance of failure, and, I should be able to wear or hold any item I find. My Charisma bonus adds to this for an adjusted UDM of over 30.


• The user manual does not say that for every 5 tumble skill you take at level-up, your AC will increase by +1. Forty points in this skill can raise your AC +8 by level 37.


• Skill Concentration can't be scrimped if you want to do any casting during combat, so I maximized this skill.


• The feat: Extend Spell is a must. Then I extend only the spells that don't last "one hour per level". The hour spells will still out last the extended spells, but, at Bard 21 this is a nice long time.


• I took 16 Dex at birth and wear cloth armor. The +12 dex we can buy later allows my AC to be one point higher than Full Plate.


• I didn't waste my feats on two types of weapons. I went with a small weapon to avoid a big AB penalty. (I still get a small AB penalty).


• I chose the Hand Axe. It's a 1d6 base and has x3 critical damage.


• I did a coin-toss for Epic Feat: Devastation Critical. With my small crit range (18-20), it hardly seemed worth it. The coin said to take Dev Crit, so I did. I am getting enough Dev Kills that I'm glad my coin was smarter than me. Using two weapons increases my chance to hit on a Dev.

I was able to level-up alone fairly easy at BadLands RPG. At times I could get my max XP of 512 easy, at other times I was forced to play down in an easier area. "Tank" I am not, "Party Support" would be more accurate. My Curse Song hurts the enemy as much as Bard Song helps the party. Some say the a +3 AB boost is not enough. I say the -5 AC to the enemy combined with my +3 AB is the equivalent of 8. Anybody want to complain about a difference of 8? Some would call it 16, as our AC goes up 5 their AC goes down 5. Our AB goes up 3, theirs goes down 3. Call it what you will, the difference really shows in close combat.

At level 40, my AC was around 60. Not exactly high compared to a good Monk with 90 AC. But when you figure in the Bard spells that cover damage reduction and specific types of protection that does not get reflected as RAW AC, I am pretty hard to hit and hurt.

Currently I am level 43 and my stats are:
Ha Ha
I took a break from writing and went up 3 more levels.

Stats at level 46:
	naked unbuffed	dressed unbuffed	dressed buffed
HP	474	714	751
AC	27	58	64
AB	40	47	58	(6 attacks per round, 4 main, 2 off hand)
Damage 1d6	+6	+19	+19	(main hand)
BAB	27
SR	45
Str	37	49	49
Dex	14	26	26
Con	16	28	28
Int	14	20	20
Wis	12	14	14
Cha	16	28	28

(edited to reflect correctness about certain statements)