Free Blades ( New Guild)

Hiya Blade here, we lost Free Traders today as it exceeded 50 members . So I was offered a second chance, this time to create my own guild from scratch. Thus " Free Blades " was born today in rememberence of Blades of Honour and Free Traders, both guilds which have recently ceased to exist. Also 18 of the chars are my own " Something Blade " creations :)
However, i hope to invite some of my friends from the Dalakora PW Server into the Guild, along with other new found friends who i wish to invite. Obviously we shall need to be watchful not to lose this new Guild to over capacity, and i may well retire some of my Champions in due course.

The Guild is TN open to all Alignments and its Leader " Rev Blade " is Lawful Good. I have explained to Razius what happened to Free Traders, and that i have written into the Guild Description that we are a guild to Protect each other vs Pkers ......hence he does not " Fit the Mold " of a Guild member due to his past record of Pking lower level chars.

All the Best ...........Blade

Naked buffing can kill you

So last night, I'm running around the drow stronghold with Darian and Deurack. Deurack was playing a Bard/RDD/WM that he kept claiming was "going to be much tougher later on" (usually he would say that after he died). Anyway, it was a good thing that I was stocked up on Raise Dead scrolls, since we really needed them last night! But the main point of this post is to discuss the issue of naked "buffing" that so often takes place in the Badlands. Almost always, it's a bard. Your party has just rested, you prepare for the next encounter, then you look over only to see a half-naked female half-orc casting ghastly visage (and yes, seeing a female half-orc with the "fat" body shape is definitely ghastly). Characters like that need to be careful, however, if they decide to put Constitution on their armor or shield, since when they unequip those items, they lose the associated HP. Hence, each time (yes, that means multiple times) Deurack was raised from the dead back to 1 HP then removed his shield to "buff" he died. So be careful when putting certain abilities on your shield and armor. Also, some critters can strip your armor off with a successful attack and if you fail a Discipline check.

Spawn Killed by the GM

I just got spawn killed by one of the GM's. I didn't get the screen capture in time. It's really too bad it looked hilarious. There were so many polar bears in Gruzz's place that they couldn't move! (I think I pissed her off by not killing my spawns but since we were the only ones on I wasn't too concerned.)

I CLAIM NO CREDIT FOR THIS, THIS CAME FROM TERRY17

This was so good it HAD to be an original post and Terry17 doesnt have access to submit original posts, so I cut and pasted it in but wanted to give full credit to him. His post can be found in a reply to Q's post "WFT, my build still sucks, Again!" His post follows below:

ARMOR: always read the fine print.

One mistake I've seen alot of with newbies, is when they put AC on their armor. They don't check the type of AC.

There are 5 types of AC, and you will only use the highest of each type.

AC types and Locations.

Armor AC - Bracer and Chest
Deflection AC - Belt, Cloak, Helm, and Rings
Dodge AC - Boots
Natural AC - Necklace
Shield AC - Shield

Example: +3 belt and +2 helm = +3AC total.
+5 Belt = +5 AC total

I've tried to explain this to several newbies in game, but the usual result is they put +5AC on helm and leave the +3AC on belt, or make both +5AC. At this point, I log off for a while to pull at my hair...

I hope the above chart helps the newbies and reduces their questions.

Darkness Falls

I was having a conversation with Darian about how awesome the spell Darkness is, and I thougth I would share it with the rest of the community.

Darkness is awesome, and when combined with ‘Ultravision’ it can be your best friend when you’re xp’ing. Why? Well, unless a creature you are fighting has Ultravision or True Sight, when it is surrounded by magical darkness it is considered blinded. Another way to say it is that you become ‘invisible’ to that creature. What exactly does this mean? Consider this: Invisible attacking creatures get a 50% concealment bonus against enemy attacks and can ignore the dexterity modifier of any opponent unless that opponent has the uncanny dodge feat. Also, blinded creatures have a -4 penalty to all attack rolls, discipline, hide, move silently, open lock, parry, pick pocket, set trap and tumble.

So casting Ultravision on yourself before you start xp’ing and then casting Darkness on your opponent not only gives you +4 to AC against them and a 50% chance of having their attacks miss you, it also takes away all their Dex bonus to AC, which can be HUGE depending on what you’re fighting. For example, Darian said that he was able to hunt the Ice Spiders on the North Face with a build that had a 30 AB using Darkness and Ultravision.

Happy Hunting!

Damn, I'm dying!!

Heal me!!

Hello, after all the math problem topic thing below, I decided to write about something easier and less complicated: healing.
Lately, I've seen a lot of players using potions and not spending any points on healing skills.
When you are a lowbie and have like 40hp or so, it doesn't really matter which one you use; well, it does, a cleric with a high wis can usually heal all his hp with only one heal kit; but when you get on your epic lvls and all, you can see the difference between healing 30hp and 50hp each round..
Since I started making builds I've always concentrated on maxing discipline, heal and tumble when possible. Getting a stack of ten Healing Kits + 10 for 1720gp is not too much when you have more than 500hp and need to be healed as fast as you can.

Cure Critical Wounds: The target creature is healed of 4d8 points of damage, + 1 point per caster level to a maximum of +20.
Healing Kit: 1d20 + Heal Skill + Heal Kit Bonus + Wis modifier

So a lvl 40 with maxed heal (+43) and standard crap wis (8) with upgrades would have a wis 20 (mod +5), plus the healing kit bonus of +10.. = +58 then we need to add the rolled 1d20 that can be maxed out if the char isn't in combat. It would go from 59 to 78 healed hp. With skill focus or epic skill focus it would be even better, +3 and +10 respectively.. do the math there..

That's just an example.. as you level, the skill gets higher. And if the char has a high wis to start with.. hmm..
Well, after hearing a lot of heal me mg and buff me mg.. I kinda got stuck with that on my mind..
Later Badlanders.. lol

Love for the rapier

This post is in response to Deurack’s post in which he provides a convincing argument on why the kukri should be the weapon of choice for melees--- primarily because he believes that “Mysteria” is a more powerful weapon than the “Rapier of the High”. Deurack makes some excellent points, but I’d like to expand, clarify and give a little “love” back to the rapier.

First, I’d like to compare the two boss drops, “Mysteria” and “Rapier of the High”. Click on the image below for the side-by-side comparison of each drop.
As you can see, both weapons have the same critical threat range and critical multiplier and keen property. The only discernible difference is in the base damage and damage bonuses. Based on my admittedly poor arithmetic skills, I calculate that (not including Strength bonus) Mysteria will do 11 – 44 hp damage on a normal hit, and 22 – 88 on a critical hit. The “High” will do 10 – 42 hp damage on a normal strike, and 20 – 84 on a critical. So, Deurack is correct in that the tiny kukri is more of a damage dealer than the rapier. Which begs the question, why would anyone ever choose a rapier at all? The answer for me is simple: in order to wield a kukri, you have to use an additional feat (exotic weapon proficiency). The rapier, being a “martial” weapon, is typically usable by all melee classes and elves get rapier proficiency for free. “Well, it’s just one feat you say”… yes, that’s true, but when your build is feat-starved (like most of my melees- for example, a dev-crit Barbarian/Bard/RDD) you really don’t want to spend that exotic weapon proficiency early in your career. This is especially true when you need to spend feats on things like heavy armor proficiency or weapon finesse on a dex-build. The kukri is definitely the best option though for a dual-wielding dev critter and/or weapon master. I just don’t play dual-wielders in the Badlands (with the exception of dual-kama monks), simply because the best drop, in my opinion, in the entire server is the Devastation Shell, so I want to sport that shield in my off-hand.

One additional correction to Deurack’s post- He mentioned that because the kukri is a “slashing” weapon, you can cast ‘keen edge’ on it. However, despite what the spell description says on NWN wikia, ‘keen edge’ will work on any weapon. I cast it on my rapiers all the time until I can obtain the “Rapier of the High”.

Finally, I’m going to really go out on a limb here and recommend that neither “Mysteria” nor the “Rapier of the High” is the best option under all circumstances. The boss dropped weapons are very powerful indeed, however, they cannot be altered outside of casting ‘Dark Fire’ on them. If you have access to the ‘Greater Magic Weapon (GMW)’ and ‘Keen Edge’ spells, then a mundane rapier or kukri upgraded in the Stone Conjoint may be your best option. Here’s why:

For example, you can add the following upgrades to a rapier (or kukri): Magical damage 1d10, Divine damage 1d10, Sonic 1d10, Electrical 1d8, and Cold 1d4.
By casting ‘Keen Edge’ and GMW (enhancement +5) on that same rapier, you’ll be doling out 11 – 53 hp damage on a normal hit (compare that with the 10 – 42 damage the “High” will get you). A kukri, with the same properties and GMW will do 11 – 51 damage (compared to 11 – 44 hp damage by “Mysteria”).

The +6 enhancement on ‘Mysteria’ and the “High” are definitely a boon, as you will hit your opponent slightly more often. But the damage output from the mundane upgraded rapier example above might make you want to sheath the “High” and pull out your Stone Conjoint rapier. For example:

Your AB with the above rapier with GMW and keen edge spells might be 60. Your opponent has an AC of 70. In 20 rolls, you will hit them 11 times (on average) and nail them for 121 – 583 hp damage on normal hits (average 352 hp damage). All critical hits would add up to 242 – 1166 hp damage (average 704 hp).
Compare that to if you were wielding the “Rapier of the High”. Your AB would be 61, so you hit that same AC 70 a total of 12 times (on average) and dish out 120 – 504 hp on normal hits (average 312 hp) and 240 – 1008 hp on all critical hits (average 624).
Based on that example, I suggest using your Stone Conjoint upgraded rapier. Unless your AB is really low, in which case you might need that extra attack bonus the Rapier of the High provides. It’s entirely up to you.

In case you’re wondering how an upgraded kukri stacks up against Mysteria. A kukri with the same upgrades as the rapier would dish out 11 – 51 damage on normal hits, compared with Mysteria’s 11 – 44 hp. I’ll let you do the rest of the math.

***note, none of the above examples includes damage from the spell Dark Fire, since it can be cast on all weapons, including boss drops.