Poll: best & most useless subclass

Remove all ads!

I thought neither barbarians nor berserkers went totally out of control, just minsc. And also, don't barbarians have faster movement too?

 

Yeah, they move a bit faster, but that didn't seem important enough to mention...

 

Sol'Kanar is right. Neither one goes out of control when berserking. Barbarians don't get winded, but that honestly is nothing really worth pointing out. The berserker rage is much better, as it also protects from maze and imprisonment, the barbarian one does not.

Barbarians move about as quickly as a normal character with haste. How much of an advantage is that? Once again, not much.

The barbarian may have more hitpoints and weapon resistances, but he gets hit much more often. That's roughly an even trade.

The using ranged weapons isn't much either, as if you were thinking of using a fighter with a bow, well, you're kind of missing the point.

Barbarian is immune to backstab. Enemies very rarely backstab before ToB and in ToB, you can get equipment that makes you immune to BS (Enkidu's plate for example).

 

Hmm, you're absolutely right about the not killing party members, that was actually the one of the reasons I never used the class.

Anyway, berserker rage doesn't help vs level drain, so it's level drain vs imprisonment (barbarian rage DOES protect vs maze). I prefer vs level drain because of the ammount of undead in this game. Every enemy who cast's imprisonment is a special case and asks for a special tactics anyway.

There's nothing wrong with using a range weapon every once in a while. Red dragon scale and Shadow dragon scale are only 2 armor classes apart, and you can honestly tell me that compensates for 20% resistances AND more hitpoints? besides hp's help vs most spells and armor doesn't.

I played a barbarian to the end of ToB, and I always put him out front simply because he can take more hits than any other fighter can. It's like he just doesn't die, I never had that feeling with a fighter, so I'm positive he's stronger.

 

I was not trying to attack the barbarian, but rather offer a very objective view of their abilities. I am not a major fan of either class.

Barbarians have the potential to have more hitpoints, although a dwarven berserker (with 19 Con) is pretty darn close unless you play on an easy difficulty level.

 

I for one, like the jester. as a sub-class, it differs very slightly from the standard jester, with the same basic effect(am i right about this, i still don't get effect vs. affect?). The Avenger druid is cool to, but my favorite has to be the fighter/mage dual class. You have access to all the spells at the price of wearing no armor. With certain magical items, you can get a very respectable AC. The Flail of Ages is also awsome in the hands of a skilled fighter/mage.

[ August 08, 2002, 22:47: Message edited by: Aft Foreward ]

 

What potion problem?

[ August 09, 2002, 03:19: Message edited by: Abyssal Knight ]

 

I forgot to add, if it were a fight between a strait bard and a jester (also unsure if I should capatalize a sub class name, suggestions?) the jester has an advantage since their song effects enemies whereas a bard's song effects the party. If you are playing solo, the jester is the logical choice over the standard bard. Many people ignore the difference in songs and call the jester worthless. The first time I soloed, I played as a jester, and that was one of the most fun things I have ever done in this game.

 

The "potion problem" was that Wizard Slayers could not use anything magical except weapons and armour, including potions of healing and such. Made the class pretty much useless. The problem is gone now but, since I also have ToB installed, I am not sure if that was fixed in an SoA patch or not.

As for the good, the bad, and the ugly sub-classes, I have always liked skalds and assassins. The no-metal restrictions on beast masters is too limiting, and I have always found plain-vanilla fighters boring (not bad, mind you, just boring).

[ August 09, 2002, 04:21: Message edited by: JohnnyRTFM ]