Melees and some gripes...

[Roco Bottombutts]

Hello everyone. This is my first post so please bear with me...my friends and I have been playing this server now for a few months and I noticed something that bugs me about my melee-character.

Why is it that my 30th lev fighter/wm has no where near the attack bonus that a 25th lev cleric/4 fighter/1 wm can achieve? Is this right? A cleric can buff their attack bonus up to +19 - +21 from the following spells (assuming they have under an 18 str to begin with):

Extended Divine Power (must be cast 1st as well...STR to 18 and BA=25th lev fighter so net increase of around +4 - +8 to BA), Divine Favor (+5 BA), Maxed Bulls (+2-+3 more to BA), Extended Bless (+1 BA), Extended Aid (+1 BA and some extra HP), Extended Prayer (+1 to BA), Extended Battletide (+2 to BA), Extended Aura vs Good, and Extended Aura vs. Evil.

Other servers I've played on limit the stacking of these cleric spells for this reason. When Clerics can run around all day (extended buffs and tons of spells slotted to just those buffs) with higher BA than melees of the same level something's wrong. Especially when my 30th lev character has maxed discipline, epic skill focus discipline (around 50 discipline) vs these knockdown clerics and still gets knocked down!

Should the stacked BA bonuses from these spells be limited?

I'm a little frustrated that clerics are the better melee class vs pure fighter builds. I understand that adding a little of one class to augment the character makes that character better, but a 25th lev cleric getting a better attack bonus vs a 25th lev fighter disturbs me.

Enough of my rant...gonna go build me a 25th lev cleric/5 fighter/10 wm soon if there's no plans by the creators of this server to limit a cleric's stacking buffs...

[Death Dealer1]

there are limits to stacking...but the all revolve around buffing your weapon. most of those spells that you listed are party buffs. i don't think it will change anytime soon.

[Roco Bottombutts]

Yep DeathDealer, I forgot to mention the extended + to BA from a Greater Magic Weapon. But I figure that since most melees run around with the +5 amazon axe, GMW is not needed.

Seems to me it would be logical to prevent the following 3 spells from stacking with each other:

Divine Power, Divine Favor, and Battletide.

Thus, a cleric can still buff a party, but doesn't turn into a melee tank that's better than a pure melee class.

Note that divine favor and divine power are self buffs only. Maybe make them not stack + to BA with each other, yet keep other synergies or bonuses.

I saw a melee cleric on the other day with a +52 to their attack roll!!!! Not even pure melees can reach a BA that high! Arrrggggh. It just makes knockdown so much more powerful in the hands of a melee cleric then vs in the hands of a pure meleer.

I wonder what the creators of this server think about this. Am I barking up the wrong tree?

[mgrjebbo]

I belive so m8.

[MasterYoda]

you also got to realize if you have a straight tank and a cleric (non buffed) standing next to each other then yell attack usually the melee ( assuming the person knows how to build) will win every time....

The downfall to the cleric is then need TIME TO BUFF......

Period.

Yeah mages and melees are awesome with there spells..... withought there just real crappy meat shields.

[PeregrineV]

Imagine all those cleric buffs on your melee char. Talk nicely to your local cleric.

[MasterYoda]

Me Kromix and Munchkin (<<Newest kst member) were leveling last night ans we were level 11-13ish....

Kromix - mage
Yoda - Cleric
Munchkin- Fighter RDD

with our buffs she tore up tree smashers, ice walkers, beserkers, and finally was the only reason we could kill lord greezor.....at level 13

Tanks + Buffs = PWNAGE!!!!!!

[Death Dealer1]

i fought a pally/CoT that had AB that got up to 67.....try standing up to that.

[JesterOI]

my 30th lev character has maxed discipline, epic skill focus discipline (around 50 discipline) vs these knockdown clerics and still gets knocked down!

Must be doing something wrong, my level 32 has 64 disc WITHOUT Epic Skill Focus... Maybe go and try to find some better gear. Slave rings and a Highlord helm should help.

[Roco Bottombutts]

Acck!! Thor's buttocks.

Guess I'm off to find better gear (and maybe a cleric to party with since they may be nerfed some but not that much on this server compared to others I've played on)...not ready to give up on this melee character yet! Thanks for the suggestions.

[MasterYoda]

Also another thing you might want to do is find a crafting caster buddy....

Something as little as spellmantle pots and haste pots could really mess up a casters worls....

[Elagneros]

Also another thing you might want to do is find a crafting caster buddy....

Something as little as spellmantle pots and haste pots could really mess up a casters worls....

Spell mantle pots are unbrewable though.

[Daedalus]

just to make a point about the above comment above nerfing Clerics...
I tend to disagree with you statement about nerfign some of the spells. All classes have advantages and disadvantages, a mage can kill a cleric quick-smart with a Mord and then a few spells. While ure melee WM could probably tank a mage. I do believe that clerics might be a bit more powerful melee, but everything has a downfall

[JesterOI]

Being a cleric has no down part other than your BAB maxing out at 15 and thus only having three attacks... wait... Oh yea, Divine Power remedies that.

Mord's isn't going to do much other than annoy a high level cleric. Unless it has changed for NS, mords dispels up to DC40 at most. DC being opposing caster's level + spell lvl + 10.

[LinuxPup]

A pure sorc/wiz at lvl 40 can strip buffs off a pure lvl 40 cleric. The +20 limit on Mords was removed with NWN 1.66 I believe... not sure about NS specifics though.... this is regular NWN I'm talking about. A mage with epic focus in abjuration would really clean off cleric buffs.