Reply To: Nimble perk: build advice

#20264
Avatar photoWargasm
Participant

Yeah. The Strong trait also means you can wear armour with up to 10 fatigue without it lowering your initiative or Dodge bonus.

I haven’t yet got to try out the new Nimble, but I think that thieves and gamblers would be ideal for it, since they (especially thieves) tend to start with higher melee and ranged defence skills, as well as higher initiative.

With the old Nimble (I mean the recent old Nimble, not the olde old one that doubled melee defence from all non-shield sources), I managed to get one thief to have typically ~70 defence in battle against both melee and ranged attacks (for the ranged defence, that included the typical bonus from the Anticipation perk). That was from high base defences, high starting initiative (bolstered by 3-star talent so that the Dodge bonuses were +20 even in a mail hauberk – the penalty to initiative and fatigue having been reduced by the Brawny perk), and also the +10% confident morale bonuses (courtesy of a sergeant blowing a trumpet in the first round of battle) and the Lone Wolf bonuses (activated by withdrawing from the pack after attaining confident morale). Bonuses around 10% don’t mean much when a stat is low, but they become significant when it’s already high. In the new game, the Lone Wolf defence bonuses are increased to 15%, and so it might be worth taking for a nimble dodging character who already has high defences and just needs an extra boost to make hits almost impossible. The 15% resolve bonus could help with attaining confident morale now that the Rally the Troops skill no longer raises morale beyond steady (and with avoiding dips in morale due to being surrounded). Gamblers tend to have high resolve as well as high initiative and (sometimes) high defence skills. The only problems with using Lone Wolf to bolster defences now are that (a) the enemy AI tends to be more defensive, so that a Lone Wolf character can’t readily be used to catch archers etc., and (b) the Underdog perk only nullifies 3 of the possible 6 hit bonuses from opponents surrounding a character (although high initiative and the Overwhelm perk could compensate for that).

But, to get Nimble to work, you will need a character to have good base melee defence, because even a +20 Dodge bonus would mean that uber-skilled opponents (e.g. swordmasters) might still have a hit chance close to 75% (and 75% of 75% is still above 50%).

I wouldn’t use the Footwork perk for such a character, because with super-high defences you should usually be able to stroll through the melee at will without getting hit (and without using so much fatigue).

The perks I’d choose for a nimble character would be:

– Definite: Nimble, Dodge, Anticipation, Overwhelm
– Probable: Brawny (if wearing any meaningful amount of armour), Underdog, Pathfinder, Adrenaline (so that they can use Overwhelm against direwolves and necrosavants)
– Possible: Lone Wolf, Fortified Mind (to make it easier to gain the +10% confident morale boosts, and in case of morale checks from being surrounded), Hold Out (in case of one-off hits inflicting injuries that lower defences), Nine Lives (again just in case of one-off hits, and since hit points probably won’t be high on this character), Weapon Mastery (maybe daggers for greater nimbleness, initiative and overwhelming ability), Duellist (if using a one-handed weapon other than a dagger), Reach Advantage (if using a two-handed weapon), Gifted (just to get their defences that little bit higher), or maybe even Taunt (so that they can lure enemies away from vulnerable allies or opponents)

The main attributes I’d increase would be melee defence and ranged defence, and after that I’d go for initiative and resolve. I wouldn’t bother much with attack skills, since their whole purpose is to be hard to hit themselves (and to distract opponents for the benefit of allies with better attack skills). I also wouldn’t bother much with hit points (since they should only get hit once in a blue moon, if effective) but I might use the Hold Out or Nine Lives perks as security. Neither would I bother much with max fatigue, since more max fatigue equals more potential for initiative to plummet.