Alptraum - Major Overhaul

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Hideous
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2019 8:45 pm

Alptraum - Major Overhaul

Postby Hideous » Sun Mar 13, 2022 6:23 pm

So when I initially made Alptraum, I intended for him to be optimized for fighting in wildshape form. I wanted him to be tanky but also capable of dishing out a healthy amount of damage, since I was mostly going to be playing as a peusdo-hermit (as most druids are). So I made him a bear druid. Naturally I chose both Expertise and Improved Expertise since wildshape loses the ability to wear armor, so I had to get AC from somewhere. I also chose to put a couple points into tumble hoping maybe that would be worth it in the long run; another point of AC (on average) seemed useful.

Well, upon reaching level 4 and finally unlocking wildshape, I was very disappointed to find out that neither Expertise nor Tumble can be used while in wildshape form. It doesn't mention this anywhere on the wiki or in the ingame tooltips, so I was pretty frustrated as well. I hope this is just a bug, so maybe I can get some clarification here on that matter before my suggested character changes are implemented.

Assuming these are intended design choices, I would like to remove both Expertise and Improved Expertise and replace them with Heavy Armor Proficiency and Toughness. I recently came across a very valuable and strong piece of heavy armor that luckily isn't made of metal so my character can actually use it, so that explains why I want heavy armor proficiency. I don't want my character to be super vulnerable when he's outside of wildshape form, so I feel having heavy armor is a good compromise to solve this issue. Toughness is also a worthy substitute for my second choice, since it benefits wildshape and provides some tankiness in substitute for expertise.

As for Balance, I put 2 points into it (4 total, since it's not a class skill) and I would like those points to be reallocated into Spellcraft.



Additionally, there is also a major issue with switching over to heavy armor with my ability scores. Heavy armor gives a pretty hefty negative modifier to dex based skills, so I'm not sure if you will honor what I'm about to propose, since it's a pretty substantial change, but I would like to remove 2 points of dex and put them into strength instead (so I can actually wear it and still run around), and an additional 2 points of dex and put them into constitution, bringing my constitution up to 14 (from 13).

Ontop of that, I would like to remove all the points I put into Stealth (6 total) and put 5 into Survival and 1 into Spellcraft. I almost never even use stealth anyway, so I feel like this one shouldn't be that big of a deal. I also put 2 points into Escape Artist, and although I would like to keep this skill because it's useful, it won't be of any use to me at all if I'm going to be wearing heavy armor with a whopping -8 modifier. Technically I could remove my armor whenever I wanted to open a lock, but I feel like that is just way too meta gaming for me to feel comfortable roleplaying on a consistent basis. So I would like to also remove the 2 points in Escape Artist and put 1 point each into Survival and Spellcraft.

I realize this is a pretty substantial overhaul but currently my character feels absolutely ruined with how I built him versus how the game mechanics actually are, and if I had known that expertise and tumble didn't work in wildshape, I would never have built him the way I did. I hope I'm not asking for too much here, even though I know it seems like a lot, and thank you for taking the time to consider my proposed changes.

Loreweaver
Administrator & Builder
Posts: 542
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2015 10:39 pm

Re: Alptraum - Major Overhaul

Postby Loreweaver » Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:05 pm

Regarding clarification, you can presently use Tumble and Expertise with Wildshape as long as you don't activate them through a quickslot. You can use the radial menu, which can also be activated and navigated with the numpad if you prefer to do less clicking.

Hideous
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2019 8:45 pm

Re: Alptraum - Major Overhaul

Postby Hideous » Tue Mar 15, 2022 1:25 pm

Ah, I see. Well in that case, I would like to still go through with my proposed changes with the exception of removing Expertise/Improved Expertise.

Mainly because I found this armor and would really like to use it. I won't be able to use it until I'm level 6 when I get my last feat (two whole levels from now), but that's fine, I'll endure a little suffering. and I'll just have to skip out on toughness then.

To be honest, when I first took Balance I was an idiot and thought it was like vanilla nwn where you only need +5 in the skill to benefit from it. I figured since it was a non class skill I could eventually get it to +5, but quickly realized the mistake I made and just decided to live with it. That's my fault for not reading the tooltip thoroughly so I understand if you won't honor that change. It won't really break my character and technically since I can use it in wildshape it won't be a complete waste. But if it's possible to replace those skill points and put them into Spellcraft instead, I'd like to do that.

I'll be carrying around this heavy armor for a while so I feel that justifies eventually being able to figure out how to put it on, even if that is a bit wonky to roleplay. I'll edit my characters description so that it's apparent that he has it strapped to his back. He's been carrying it around for a little bit now, so it makes some sense that he would naturally be a bit stronger from all that weight training. And with that in mind, he wouldn't be so stealthy anymore or be able to tumble like he used to (even though I hardly ever even tumbled or stealthed to begin with). I did have to haul it all the way from Filur to Sarshel, walking like a snail the whole time so that has to account for something I hope :cry: :lol:


So all in all, my changes would be:

Reduce Dexterity from 16 to 12
Increase Strength to 14 from 12
Increase Constitution from 13 to 14

Remove the 2 (4) points from Balance
Remove the 6 points of Stealth
Remove the 1 (2) points from Escape Artist

Add 6 points to Survival
Add 6 points to Spellcraft

OldGrouch
DM
Posts: 133
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:21 pm

Re: Alptraum - Major Overhaul

Postby OldGrouch » Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:28 am

Approved and resolved.


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