Soar

[Soar]

Salperticon wrote:

I did not fight many undead until now, but I assume they are immune against the stun.

I’m pretty sure I’ve successfully stunned a Fallen Hero before.

[Soar]

I can confirm that pikes can spawn in newly-created campaigns. Not sure as regards to ones from old versions – but the shops might need to rotate out some of their existing stock before newly-implemented items start showing up.

[Soar]

madmansam wrote:

Wow that’s seriously impressive. How did you stay alive long enough to reach level 2 let alone level 11?

By relying on NPC allies. Militias and caravans from prosperous settlements may be strong enough to fight off enemy parties, and of course there’s also castles, watchtowers and their patrols. In an earlier challenge run, a big break came when I got attacked by orc and bandits simultaneously, the bandits killed the orcs, and I was able to finish off the wounded bandits for enough experience to go up two levels. You can also whittle down parties using guerrilla tactics. Fight on the map edge, kill what you can and retreat the moment the situation starts to look unfavorable, then switch to an undamaged set of equipment and go back in again. If someone’s wandering around without head armor, it’s worthwhile to send a bolt, arrow or javelin their way in hopes of an one-shot kill – my first one-man-challenge character was actually a hunter with 55 starting Ranged Attack, which was helpful early on.

Once you get Battle Flow from the utility tree, you begin to have a chance of defeating groups of weaker enemies like zombies, ghouls and bandit thugs by your lonesome in a straight-up fight. Experience is gained by scoring kills, so single-handedly defeating enemy parties will get you a lot of it in a hurry. Still, expect to die a lot, especially before you’re high-level – in particular, werewolves love to munch on low-level characters, so I recommend spending your nights next to someplace with a strong militia or garrison.

[Soar]

Nimble can work out:

My level-11 one-character-challenge Battle Brother there has 62 Melee Defense with Nimble, 82 once Confident thanks to Hold Out – in comparison, it would be 51 and 61 if using a heater shield, or 56 and 66 with Shield Expert. This is before accounting for Dodge. You’re looking at 14 dead Bandit Raiders and one dead Marksman. I ambushed the Marksman but there were a couple of Raiders nearby that engaged my character in melee – I figured I’d quickly kill them to get rid of their zone of control so I could retreat, but my character kept whiffing until the enemy’s main force arrived and I ended up completely surrounded. Preventable, and I wasn’t really expecting him to live through that, but thanks to high Melee Defense and Melee Skill, Riposte, and a blessing from the dice gods, that’s what happened.

He’s not a strictly optimal character for a Nimble build, as he doesn’t have any Defense bonuses from background or traits (if he did, the gap in defense compared to a shield build would be bigger). His biggest vulnerability is that Nimble doesn’t do anything against ranged attacks; I keep a Kite Shield handy for ranged protection, and I probably should’ve gone for Shield Expert instead of Colossus for that reason and invested more into Ranged Defense during levelups. I didn’t grab Anticipation as most of my perks went into the utility tree (Battle Flow is a must-have for an one-character challenge, and without Weapon Master you’re going to have to carry a lot of replacement swords, although I suspect a defensive perk would’ve been more optimal in this particular case).

Shieldwall is another method of reaching a very high defense value, but it’s difficult to sustain Shieldwall and Riposte simultaneously, even with Battle Flow. A Nimble build also does more damage per hit, thanks to the Double Grip bonus.

[Soar]

Sky wrote:

Soar wrote:

I disagree, it’s still useful to 2-handed-weapon users – it’s just that they can only have the shield up after attacking every other round, as opposed to every round as before the change or with your suggestion. It also enables an archer to draw both a melee weapon and a shield and still attack, use an ability, or move during a single turn.

Starting with a 2h, lets say the enemy closes in, my turn. If I hit with the 2h I can switch to the shield after(6+2). But my next turn I will be able only switch back to 2h and hit(2+6). Not being able to switch back to the shield. That makes you shielded every other round if for some insane reason you decide to cycle through.

You get up to +20 to defense (depending on shield) every other turn. The only things you lose by leaving your weapon hand empty at the end of your turn as a two-handed-weapon user are potential damage against any enemies that try to leave your zone-of-control and the ability to move one step before performing a two-handed-weapon attack on your next turn, but if needed, you’re still able to draw an one-handed weapon, move one step and attack. I don’t see the problem.

That is a walid point up till you can fire 4 xbow in 2 turns. To reload an xbow you still need 7 points. So after the first barrage you will need 4 rounds to reload all and be able to shot again. You will not do that. No one will. It is way simplier to fight with only one after the initial shots.

Quick Hands gives you the option to spend any turns where you don’t have an opportunity for a good shot reloading a spare crossbow instead, as I wrote, allowing you to potentially fire two times rather than once when you do have the opportunity. Situational, but it is another reason why it might be useful for a ranged character.

[Soar]

Battle Flow: I’ve been playing one-character challenges and I think this perk is probably the most important reason why they’re at all viable. I don’t think it’s overpowered in regular play, since having multiple Battle Brothers means the fatigue gets spread out over more people, and Rally the Troops fulfills the same need when you have a company. Might make for an extremely powerful combo with Perfect Focus, though.

Sky wrote:

The ap cost of 2 per item as the quick hands has now makes the skill useless absolutely. The scenarios in which it could be useful are too rare to take this perk. The simpliest way is to limit it’s use to one per turn for no ap and the secound per turn for 2 ap while all other for 4 ap as without the skill. This way even 2h users will be able to switch freely to a weapon OR shield for free while paying 2ap for the other hand item.

I disagree, it’s still useful to 2-handed-weapon users – it’s just that they can only have the shield up after attacking every other round, as opposed to every round as before the change or with your suggestion. It also enables an archer to draw both a melee weapon and a shield and still attack, use an ability, or move during a single turn.

If you combine it with Bags and Belts, you can carry 4 crossbows (plus a melee weapon) and fire off 4 bolts in 2 rounds. If you don’t have Quick Hands you can still fire 3, but Quick Hands also enables you to switch to and load an unloaded crossbow in a single turn so you can perform the technique again later in the battle, if you happen to have a turn where you don’t have a decent shot. Those crossbows can also be fired in melee range if necessary, unlike bows. Before the change, you could’ve fired all 4 bolts in a single turn.

[Author]

Posts