12 replies to this topic

[Klorox]

Before we even get started, I know that powergaming is not needed in any RPG to have a great time, probably even moreso in PS:T.

Anyway, I got to thinking, what would be the most powerful NO somebody could create? What would his starting stats be? What classes would he choose?

Well, the simple part is the classes, early on anyway (mainly for a very solid Hit Point base).

There's no reason not to go to level 6 as a Fighter. After that, you should obviously choose level 7 in the class you'd like to concentrate on, and then switch back to Fighter until level 9. Level 10 should be in the Thief class. After that, you're pretty safe sticking with the class you'd like to concentrate on for the remainder of the game. If you're really into an extra 1/2 attack per round, go to level 13 as a Fighter. Just make sure you take level 12 in your chosen profession, since this is the second "power-up."

On to the statistics:

It's great to have a 18 Strength, so that when it gets boosted by an item or certain circumstances in the game, it can jump to 19 STR, skipping over those annoying percentile STR points. This is just a point-saving thing though: if you don't plan on whacking things with a weapon, STR isn't worth too much.

Dexterity pretty much loses it's appeal after 18, so I'd personally aim for that to be the end point. I've noticed a 13 DEX helping quite a bit early on for some minor XP bonuses.

Constitution is very tricky: The extra HP and faster regeneration rate make a high CON very appealing, but dying in this game is only an annoyance, since you always get back up! It's a very good idea to start with a 14 CON though. You start the game with 10 more HP than you would with a 9 CON. And this little bonus is not granted if you boost your CON to 14 later.

Intelligence is a great stat. It helps in quite a few conversations. If you want to be a Mage, you really need to aim for a 19 INT, since you won't be limited by the number of spells you can scribe in your book. On the other hand, you have a long way to go before ever worrying about that, so it can still start off fairly low.

With stats, Wisdom rules. There's no reason for both the powergamer and the guy looking to get the most story out of this game to not start with an 18 WIS. This stat adds to XP, meaning you go up in levels faster. And leveling up faster means more stats! It also means the most recovered memories, so there's more story that way as well as more XP. Minor spoiler: If you don't plan on playing (primarily) a Mage, boost this by 1 at your first level-up. If you are playing a Mage, you don't need to worry. I say this because there's a great item available late in the game that grants a +2 to CHA at the cost of -1 to WIS. You get +7 WIS through the game, so a starting 18 will lead to 25.

Charisma. I like CHA, a lot. It's probably the second most important stat. It opens up a lot of conversation options (very important in quite a few places), and lowers prices in all the shops (which means more stat boosting tattoos earlier!).

Alignment: From what I can tell, you get a lot more in this game from playing a Lawful Good type. You get some better items, and you get better stat bumps (from both items and conversations).

Class choice: Personally, I'd concentrate either on Fighter or Mage. Mage is probably a bit more powerful, and you'll almost definitely get more out of the story (since you'll be looking for a higher INT). Fighters will just kick serious butt in combat. They get the most fun weapons to play with. It's almost universally accepted (at least from all I've read, as well as personal experience) that Thieves aren't all that great. BTW, one of the best, and definitely the most versatile stat boosting item in the game requires 12 levels of Mage.

Faction choices: If you're concentrating on Mage, I'd suggest joining the Dustmen first, then the Godsmen, and finally the Sensates. Sensates have a neat little bonus that allows them to give 1-10 HP of their own to heal a party member once a day. Since TNO regenerates, it's like having an extra Cure Light Wounds spell handy.

If you're going with a Fighter build, I'd suggest going with the Dustmen, then the Sensates, and finally the Godsmen. The only reason for this is that the Godsmen have some really awesome weapons available fairly early in the game, and only Godsmen can use them.

Well, that's about it for now. I'd love to get some feedback, and if anybody has a list of the stats needed for the highest stat checks in the game we can pretty much wrap this baby up!

[Irbis]

hehe. been playing a "legit" mage and gone up to 60 lvl or something. there really was not much enemies (or even one) who could survive meting me. warriors and thiefs are limited, you hit max str, get the best weapons and then the only thing that improves is you HP (yes i ignore TraK0 here as it becomes more then enough quite soon) and v'la. your done.
Wizard class in the other hand always improves from the first lvl to max known to me 127lvl. both in spells dmg and number of spells you can cast. mages are just neverending progress when fighting or thief reaches their limits in +/- 30 lvl and they dont improve much further. fighter with 30lvl will do the same dmg as the one with 90lvl. you just have literaly tons of HP and trak0 like point lasers lol. the downside is that after 30lvl mage there isnt really much of challange... and anything above this is like god mode (PS:T gives you incredible high level cap but totaly lacks of powerfull enemies)

Edited by Irbis, 02 December 2008 - 09:01 AM.

[Irbis]

1. switched to mage ASAP
2. did every singiel quest there was,
3. camped in dungeon underCleric District every time i had over 50% EXP needed for lvl up
4. v'la, cant remember did i had 9 or 12 spells slots in 9th row of wizard spells. cant remember how many from 1 row but i am preety much sure they stoped being visibly lol

[Klorox]

3. camped in dungeon underCleric District every time i had over 50% EXP needed for lvl up

OMG, I would have felt like shooting myself.

[The Imp]

1: If I get to fighter 12 (getting 2 fighter specializations) and then will turn mage for the rest of the game… will TNO be considered not mage by some characters?

...

 

3: Do proficiencies give THAC0 and damage bonuses beyond 0,5 attack having ** and +1attack on ***** ?

 

4: Klorox and the post below him advices to start with con 14 to get 10hp more but if this 10 HP points are so important why not to start witch 18 and get 42hp from the beginning?

1. Well in the early game he has no mage class so yeah. Beyond that, you have to gain the XP to level up from level 1 as a mage. The games xp is harder to get the further you go beyond the normal limits of the game. And thus you should make your character build the optional way, and not go "yeah, I'll take 5 warrior, 5 rogue and 5 mage class before I decide to do a decision from one of them.

3. Yes, it's the standard 2nd edition Prof table:

2DA V1.0
0
   HIT  DAMAGE     
0   0     0
1   0     0
2   1     2
3   3     3
4   3     5
5   3     5

The first being the star/proficiency amount, second the Thac0 bonus and third the damage bonus.

4. There are other benefits such as the tattoo's(if memory serves), but the benefit is not worth using all the points at the beginning. Especially as you are immortal.

Edited by The Imp, 05 August 2016 - 03:08 AM.

[Daulmakan]

I want to build as powerful character as possible (for no particular reason but to balance it a little I probably will set the highest difficulty level.)
I can understand right now is that the best effects I will get with mage.

Actually, mages don't have a wide spell selection like in BG2, and practically all the monsters you'd want to use your spells on have magic resistance, rendering them a lot less useful (there's no Lower Resistance in PS:T). So, for powergaming, fighter is the way to go.

 
1: If I get to fighter 12 (getting 2 fighter specializations) and then will turn mage for the rest of the game will TNO be considered not mage by some characters?

IIRC, NPCs just check your current active class, regardless of whatever levels you might have in another, I think Coaxmetal and Fell were the only ones where your specializations mattered (they offered different items).

Finally, just to make sure, I believe that with the Tweaks Pack getting 10 levels as thief is redundant? 

In vanilla, you'd get an extra HP for each level-up in another class below your main one, so there was an incentive to gain levels as thief or mage even if you were playing a fighter. If you're using Qwinn's fixpack, you don't get those extra hit points.