UMD usefulness

Mitx · Post by **Mitx** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:30 pm

Is Use magic device a skill worth putting ranks into on neversummer?

In my experience there a few items that have restrictions on who can use them and most of them are staffs and scrolls, only seen 2 weapons with restrictions.

Was thinking of making a bard, and wasnted to figure out more about how useful UMD is on this server.

Is it worth it for a bard to dump skill points into UMD as they can already use some scrolls and wands, but i think that most staffs are limited to Wizards and Sorcerers only.

Post by **Mr. O'Dearly** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:52 pm

Ive found it useful if you have an arcane crafter supplying you with gear.
The MA staves are nice, they can cast the greater version of each stat boost, which i think gives a +2d4 bonus.

P. Fricebottle · Post by **P. Fricebottle** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:54 pm

UMD is very useful, don't max ranks though. Only get it to how high it is to succeed at using all magical items. Usually thats 15 DC, but some seem to have been altered to 20 and such.

Post by **Mr. O'Dearly** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:58 pm

P. Fricebottle wrote:UMD is very useful, don't max ranks though. Only get it to how high it is to succeed at using all magical items. Usually thats 15 DC, but some seem to have been altered to 20 and such.

yes, and remember there are items to boost it. its a lot like lore or open lock, a little bit goes a long way. :wink:

Wolfarus · Post by **Wolfarus** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:30 am

Possibly the only fighter who can cast TS from a scroll, turn himself into a baalor, summon elder elementals, use big spells against the very mages who take malacious satisfaction in THEIR use of said spell, ect ect. <---

You tell me if UMD is usefull or not

Mitx · Post by **Mitx** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:40 am

Thx for the replies

Sounds like UMD is very usefull, especially if ya got a arcane crafter to supply you with stuff.

Ragnareith · Post by **Ragnareith** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:17 am

It's just a question, of course, of actually taking a class which can actually use UMD. Once you do have it, however, it's nice for using various manners of scrolls, Improved Invisibility and the Bigby variants especially. I remember a while back when I was defending Sleeth from Old Girdy, and she popped a bigby scroll on me... took my cleric out completely

Post by **Binkyuk** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:22 am

Not sure how well bigby scrolls work now though. They used to be fixed stats on the hands so scroll cast ones were the same power as normally cast ones (except for SP), but now they've been changed to be more sane i suspect the same is not true now (though i haven't tried it).

There are a few nice scrolls (energy buffer, resurrection, word of faith, camouflage) but you won't be *anything* like a native caster with them. arcane crafting is where it's at really (imp invis, mind blank and greater stat buffs - yeah baby!). there are also some half decent monster dropped items (staff of the mountain for starters).
With that in mind if I choose Bard as a class I often don't actually bother with UMD, because bards can use the arcane crafted stuff anyway, (unless I have nothing else decent to spend the skill on).

For a rogue it's well worth it though.

P. Fricebottle · Post by **P. Fricebottle** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:49 pm

Very well worth it, but remember it makes a powerful shell in a lot of cases. But then, bam. Someone strips you of all your buffs so easily. Stripping buffs off of scrolls, wands, and staves is so easy.