Eldritch Knight

A class aimed at arcane spell users. The advantage over pure mage or sorcerer is a high BAB (base attack bonus) which will increase their combat ability and 6 skill points as opposed to 4 and also 6 hit points per level. Effectively the Eldritch Knight is a warrior mage and is very popular choice… perhaps its only disadvantage! How many times have I been asked in a private message “are you an Eldritch Knight?”

Game to take me on? Eldritch Knight.

Frenzied Berserker

A great class for the violently minded, the berserker is at a bit of a disadvantage on servers which have realistic day/night and disallow constant resting. What this means is the primary ability of the class, ‘frenzy’ , is limited in the number of times a day it can be used. This does make for better role play though, as the player has to really employ their rages to the best of their ability. Often thought of as a muscle bound gorilla with a big club or axe, there is no real reason you have to use a two-handed weapon. Add ‘supreme cleave’ to a whirling dervish two weapon fighter with maximum hits per round and you get something of a killing machine.

Pale Master

What an awesome class, necromancy and hanging with the dead! Immune to critical hits with a ghoul as a best friend. The main downside is the reduction in spell levels, because you only get new spells every second Pale Master level make sure you get the ‘Practised Spellcaster’ feat (requires spellcraft of 4) and other feats that keep your DC up such as Spellcasting Prodigy (available first level only).

Shadowdancer

Well the HIPs (Hide in Plain sight)feat is basically is so cool that this class attracts at least half the players on many online game worlds. Allowing you to disappear in broad daylight it is more effective than the invisibility spell for PvP as it requires no casting time or concentration check. Some persistant worlds try to make the ‘disappearing theif’ skill a bit more realistic for role play, The Return of Middle Earth (RoME) server has moved it from being a bonus feat at Shadowdancer 1st level to 5th level. The Shores of Haldun as an alternative, encourages players to role play its use appropriately for a non magical ability; that is rather than standing in the middle of the street and ‘poof’ disappear it is recommend that you move to the hedgerow or shadows and then ‘click’. Other than this the class is a good all round sneaky slippery rogue-fighter class.

Weapon Master

A good class for humans with their extra feat at first level due to the many pre-requisite feat requirements for this class. Choose a weapon with high critical hit probability and the Weapon Master Ki critical stacked with improved critical is a vicious combination, even more so if you’re a two weapon fighter.

Not very PC, Goblin gets Weapon Mastered.

Of course other weapons are great too, a favorite role play character I met once was a master spearman. Don’t forget you need 13 skill in both intelligence and dexterity to play this class, and that as a melee specialist you will be weaker in other areas.

Red Dragon Disciple

The only real purpose of this class is to get maximum strength so that you are an uber melee fighter. The dragon Breath weapon is a major anti-climax as it is just the same animation as arcane fire spells, that is fire appears around your feet rather than blasting forth from your mouth which would be really cool.

Harper Agent

Red Wizard

The Red Wizard specialises in maximising spells, spell saves and so forth in one particular spell area such as Necromancy or Illusion. This class was added in the Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack.

Arcane Scholar of the CandleKeep

Another Mask of the Betrayer class, this one specialises in extending and empowering spells for more damage and effectiveness. A great avatar for your on line rpg time

Duelist

If you want to add damage to your light weapons without having ‘sneak attack’ appear all the time announcing your class then have a go at Duelist. Very cool for an interesting wizard/two weapon fighter role play because both classes make use of intelligence.

Stormlord

Specialists in lighting and thrown weapons imbued with lightening – a good all round class, particularly for druids.

Arcane Archer

For elves only, specialise in your bow. Some of the animations are a bit lacking for the special feats, fireball arrow which could be awesome, alas the character looks like they are casting a spell rather than firing an arrow. Death arrow is wicked, but alas you only get it once per day.

Arcane Trickster

This class is aimed at sneaky magicians and bards. The class progresses both your sneak attack and your spells, but has a really low HP’s and BAB. Designed for use with ranged touch attack spells, the class is currently weak  due to an Obsidian bug whereby these spells don’t get the sneak attack added. Still a cool class for a rogue/bard at higher levels.

Assassin

Very assassin like! The paralysis sneak attack is brilliant for taking out boss foes if your sneak is high enough, combine with Shadowdancer’s Hide in Plain Sight and you can sneak up.. paralysis a foe, get a few sneak attacks in then disappear again and repeat.

Blackguard

A personal favourite of mine, the Skeleton Warrior companion that the Blackguard gets is incredibly powerful, and the aura of bad vibes is very useful if you are travelling with a wizard as you melee foes saves will be lowered as they are hit by that fireball.

Sacred Fist

Finally with Storm of Zehir a decent prestige class for monks. This class progresses any divine spells whilst also moving your monk skill along. The flaming fists are a bit naff and watch out for the -8 penalty if you have ANY weapons equipped. This is a serious for those players hand combat only.

Divine Champion

If you are playing a standard class and have resisted multi-classing then a few levels of this class gets you some bonus feats and good Hit Points.

Dwarven Defender

The classic stoic immoveable dwarf. great ideas with this class, but like the Elf Arcane Archer, somewhat restricted due to only getting the abilities once per day. Combine with Barbarian  damage reduction with the Defenders 5th level DR3 then chuck on some adamantine plate with additional DR – then have a high constitution and an item of regeneration and you have yourself a solid tank.

Invisible Blade

Purely for players using kukri or daggers this chap adds bleeding damage to any successful sneak attack and is a master of the feint which of course allows frontal sneak attack if successful. A bit low on skill points for most rogues alas.

Warpriest

Basically a warrior priest the Warpriest increases his parties morale and causes fear in the enemy.

]]> http://roleplayingpcgames.info/character-prestige-class-tips-nwn/feed/ 2 http://roleplayingpcgames.info/playing-lord-of-the-rings-onlin/ http://roleplayingpcgames.info/playing-lord-of-the-rings-onlin/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:45:30 +0000 RolePlayer http://roleplayingpcgames.info/?p=48

This game is a wonderful place for fans of Lord of the Rings so long as you don’t mind polluting the wonderful world Tolkien created with a Dungeons and Dragons/World of Warcraft aesthetic and can cope with variations to the actual flavor of the original book. That said if you can distance yourself from actual Middle Earth, and see this as a separate but similar place, this is one of the most enjoyable online massive multi-player role play universes to explore. The first release Shadows of Angmar contains twelve epic quests called ‘Books’, and with each expansion or update more Books are added. Thus the recently released Mines of Moria which has received awards for best PC Game expansion, contains two new Books or quests with another five expected in updates.

With less races than similar games, only having Elf, Dwarf, Human and Hobbit, and a standard range of classes albeit with less emphasis on magic classes; Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, and Minstrel. (the expansion Mines of Moria adds Rune-Keeper and Warden). LOTRO relies on a less intricate and quite original character development system than traditional DnD type role playing PC games, to bring variety and individuality to this role playing PC game and a texture which is more Tolkienesque. In some ways the game is a simplification of the kind of traditional skills and feats systems as found in DnD and a game like Neverwinter Nights, but within the simplicity there emerges a great variety of less structured options.

Having chosen a class, players then develop a vocation, where each vocation incorporates three professions. For example if you are learning to be a Woodsman you are able to learn the professional skills of forestry, farming and wood crafting. Another point of difference is that when a character has gained enough experience to go up a level in expertise, they don’t just click a button but must go to non-player characters in the game to ‘purchase’ skills. For example at the blacksmith, this represents having been regularly to the blacksmith to train. One great idea that has no bonus value for you character but adds an interesting layer to the way role play evolves is the character naming system. While you get to create your own name, the game engine adds prefixes and suffixes based on things you have achieved in game, such as ‘Spider-Foe’ if you have slain a great number of spiders. Thus Howlin (a Dwarf) would become ‘Howlin Spider-Foe’, or perhaps even ‘High Warden Howlin Spider-Foe’.