Amazon

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The picture of the blonde female warrior in the swamp inspired me to create an Amazon Barbarian-Warrior, Shaman-Witchdoctor character. Unfortunately, IWD2 is quite different from the 3.5E rules I am used to, so I levelled her up one level at a time with Dalekeeper2 to see what happens.

Does this character stand any chance (not necessarily as a solo character)?

Could it survive in HoF mode?

What would be the best equipment to use?

Any chance of the mystical AC 72?

Can it be improved without losing the spirit of the character's role (IE no Brb 4-BoT 26)?
EG Would BoT10-Brb5-Wiz11-Ftr4 be all that much better (Tenser's Transformation plus an extra Feat), assuming there's an item to give a +2 INT buff?
Or Ftr4-Brb5-Wiz-5-Bot16?
Or Ftr4-Brb5-Bot5-Drd12-Wiz4 for maximised Barkskin?

I wanted a level or two of Ranger as well, but there'd be XP penalties. I also tried with Brb 11, but the paltry magick seemed a waste of levels and the extra combat ability not too great.

She's meant to be a self-buffing meat grinder (sort of a Tank/Decoy), so I'm not concerned with spell DC, but I suspect she may be incredibly weak compared with other builds I have seen, which usually have a party of high level spell casters, some to buff, some to debuff and some to do damage, although without any magickal items it's hard to say.

BoT = Battleguard of Tempus

Human
Female
BoT11-Brb5-Drd5-Wiz5-Ftr4

STR 17 +3
DEX 14 +2
CON 14 +2
INT 14 +2
WIS 14 +2
CHA 03 -4

AL NN

01 BoT 01 [Wep Focus Axe], Combat Casting, Subvocal Casting
02 Brb 01 [Rage 1]
03 Drd 01 Dodge
04 Wiz 01 [STR +1], Discipline
05 Ftr 01 Expertise
06 Ftr 02 Dirty Fighting, Blind Fighting
07 Ftr 03
08 Ftr 04 [STR +2], Wep Spec Ax
09 Drd 02 Wep Focus small blade
10 Brb 02
11 BoT 02
12 Wiz 02 [STR +3], Imp Critical
13 Drd 03
14 Brb 03
15 BoT 03 Wep Spec small blade
16 Wiz 03 [DEX +1]
17 Drd 04
18 Brd 04 Maximised Attacks
19 BoT 04
20 Wiz 04 [DEX +2]
21 Drd 05 Power Attack
22 Brb 05 [Rage 2]
23 BoT 05
24 Wiz 05 [STR +4], Ambidexterity, TWF
25 BoT 06
26 BoT 07
27 BoT 08 Stunning Attack
28 BoT 09 [STR +5]
29 BoT 10
30 BoT 11 Deflect Arrows


With the Every God's ring and WIS 19 she has the following spells per level:

........1 2 3 4 5 6
Bot 11..6 5 5 4 2 1
Domain..1 1 1 1 1 1
Drd 5...4 3 2 - - -
Wiz 5...5 4 2 - - -


The best buffnig spells have these durations:

Bull Strength 11 hrs
Iron Skins 8 hrs
Cat's Grace 5 hrs
Mage Armour 5 hrs
DUHM 110 rounds
Magick Circle Against Evil 110 r
Aid 110 r
Barksin 50 min
Ghost Armour 25 r
Mirror Image 15 r
Armour of Faith 14 r
Prayer 11 r
Recitation 11 r
Holy Power 11 r
Bless 11 r
Divine Shield 11 r
Strength of One 7 r
Defensive Harmony 6 r
Blur 5 min
Death Armour 5 r
Haste 5 r


With the above spells and Expertise, she gets AC 41 in Targos with no magick items except the Every God's ring.

Some of the spells do not seem to be cumulative (EG STR boosters). Is there a table anywhere of which ones are cumulative?

What's the difference between 1 minute and 1 round in IWD2? In BG a round was 6 seconds, so 1 minute would be 10 round. In proper AD&D 1 and 2, a round was about 1 minute.


So, let's hear you tear this character apart and rebuild her.



Cheers!

~

 

In IWD2 a round last 7 seconds, a turn lasts 70.
Barbarian rage doesn't stack with spells like bull's strength, so it will only grant you 2 temporary hitpoints per level and higher vulnerability.

The higher speed is the only noteworthy benefit you gain from barbarian levels, no need to get 5 levels.
You get barkskin at druid level 3, you don't get much more from taking level 5 (unless you like the wild boar shapeshift).
Consider taking a specialist wizard class for an extra spell per level (transmuter if you don't want to cast shield, else diviner) or simply don't take mage levels so you have better BAB, can wear armor and dump int.
Battleguard of Tempus is great as party priest, but not as solo mix with warrior levels when you get axe proficiency without it, take a deity which offers more useful special abilities or non-cleric domain spells like Mask or Illmater.

For most classes the gain in power at high levels is much bigger than at low levels, barbarians get damage resistance and casters high level spells for example. The 5 druid levels grant nothing nearly as good as the spells you get from cleric 12 to cleric 17 or from mage 5 to mage 10. It's better to focus on 1 class. Take cleric20 or diviner20 or sorcerer20 druid20 instead (you can mix in barbarian3/fighter4/thief or ranger or druid 3), fighter4/barbarian26 or barbarian 30 works quite well too, all can solo HoF mode.

The feats you take at level 1,4,9,15,24,27 and 30 are useless. Take something useful like dash or heroic inspiration instead. Don't start with less than 18 str, it's too useful for doing damage. Win the potion at the battlesquares which grants +2 wis and -1 dex.

 

Cheers,

I'm a role-player at heart and don't want to min-max too much.

Is Uncanny Dodge no good? I know I can get more power from a single class but I wan't a Barbarian Amazon Shaman Witch doctor. This was all much easier in 2E.

Maybe a Barbarian-Ranger-Wizard will do it. Or a Ftr-Wiz-Clr (by Wiz I mean Evoker, of course).

But with three calsses I'd have to be careful of XP penalties.


Cheers

 

You won't benefit from ranger levels.
I guess you'll have the most fun with a barbarian3/battleguard(or druid)3/evoker20 with the following stats:

STR 18 (raise it at level up)
DEX 14 (so you still have 13 after drinking the potion of holy transference)
CON 12
INT 18 (you need it to cast high level spells)
WIS 11 (enough for casting level 1 spells, you can buy a ring for +1 wis in Targos for casting level 2 spells before you get the potion of holy transference)
CHA 03

I'd take 6 wizard levels before getting a second level in the other classes, I'd always raise mage levels until there aren't high enough level scrolls. Don't take more than 20 wiz levels.

 

Hi, Kmonster,

I may well try that. I was gong to go with Ftr 4-Clr (Tempus) x - Evoker 11 or maybe Ftr-Clr 4-26, which isn't quite what I had in mind originally.

But when I realised there was no way for her to get AC 72, I thought maybe I should make her a Berseker. Blood Rage, Animal Rage, Tenser's Transformation etc seem like Berserking spells to me. But I figured the party would need a Cleric as well and so thought to boost Cleric levels (the leader is an Aasimar Druid).

The party just got enough XP for level 2, but I haven't levelled up yet, so I'll have a think about feats etc.


Cheers

 

My advice was mainly aimed at a solo character.
If you have other characters for summoning and buffing in the party you're free to choose whatever you like. Since your amazon won't be as powerful at casting offensive and defensive spells as your main casters I'd focus on dealing out maximum physical damage to overcome enemy damage reduction, so maximize strength and use big weapons.

Which build is the best depends a lot on your other party members. Spells like magic circle against evil, animate dead, emotion hope, stoneskin, improved invisibility, champion's strength, raise dead and mass haste improve your fighting power a lot, but you don't need more than one character to cast them. If you have mages or sorcerers but no cleric in the party for example, barbarian1/cleric will help more than a mage build. If you manage to get 11+ cleric levels you can last much longer in combat by casting the heal spell. Keep in mind that you won't get more than 17 levels in a party game.