Some build advice for my second character

K

Korvayle

Newbie
Hey there folks. New PC here. Been NPCing for about two games now, and I just got back from my first PC event.

I found out that I don't really like boffer combat that much, or at least I don't like the kind of high stakes two-hits-and-you're-dead combat that happens in alliance. I played a shield templar with 46 build and I didn't have that much fun. I rezzed twice.

So...I think I'm retiring that character for an archer scholar. The one thing I discovered that I did like a lot was bindomancy. The most fun I had was roleplaying, and the second most fun I had was with mystic force, when I neutralized a dangerous polearm fighter that was swinging 12 normal and taking down people left and right.

What advice can folks give me about building one of these? I'm thinking probably celestial, and probably not that many weapon profs at all. Maybe one or two by the end of the character, and none right away. Mostly I want the bow for something to do when the foes aren't worth wasting my spells. Should I get blacksmithing and make my own arrows, or buy them in game? Should I do a 4 column straight to formal magic? A 5 or 6 column? A full pyramid? Should I buy Craft Scroll, or is that really, really expensive goldwise? Any advice for playing the character and what my battle role is?
 
Korvayle said:
Hey there folks. New PC here. Been NPCing for about two games now, and I just got back from my first PC event.

I found out that I don't really like boffer combat that much, or at least I don't like the kind of high stakes two-hits-and-you're-dead combat that happens in alliance. I played a shield templar with 46 build and I didn't have that much fun. I rezzed twice.

So...I think I'm retiring that character for an archer scholar. The one thing I discovered that I did like a lot was bindomancy. The most fun I had was roleplaying, and the second most fun I had was with mystic force, when I neutralized a dangerous polearm fighter that was swinging 12 normal and taking down people left and right.

What advice can folks give me about building one of these? I'm thinking probably celestial, and probably not that many weapon profs at all. Maybe one or two by the end of the character, and none right away. Mostly I want the bow for something to do when the foes aren't worth wasting my spells. Should I get blacksmithing and make my own arrows, or buy them in game? Should I do a 4 column straight to formal magic? A 5 or 6 column? A full pyramid? Should I buy Craft Scroll, or is that really, really expensive goldwise? Any advice for playing the character and what my battle role is?
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A: contact your local logistics group, some groups allow you a re-work after your 1st PC event.
B: Most of your questions will depend upon your local player pool. But I do like to have blacksmith when having archery because I can't always get arrows/bolts (I use the crossbow).

I can't answer to the spell and scroll items. I have built my back up character based upon a character premise and I will roll with it even if it is not an 'optimal' build.
 
They will allow a rework, but so far as I know that does not include wiping out the two deaths. I lose one if I retire.
 
An elf celestial scholar with a bow can be beast.

Spells will be your most powerful tool, so I recommend buying a full 4 column as quickly as possible.

I wouldn't worry about Create Scroll. You are far better off donating to your chapter and gobbying the max 100 production each weekend to get a bunch of low level scrolls and having them available to you. (magic armor and disarm are amazing and cheap).

You will have a TON of options from there... but you'll have more of an idea of how you want to play the character at that point.

Stephen
 
Not a character build comment, but something to keep in mind with that type of character:

Be very mindful of the color of the packets you're throwing.
 
RiddickDale said:
I wouldn't worry about Create Scroll. You are far better off donating to your chapter and gobbying the max 100 production each weekend to get a bunch of low level scrolls and having them available to you. (magic armor and disarm are amazing and cheap).
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I cannot disagree with this strongly enough. I get far more mileage out of having it than 100 gs per event could provide. The low level spells are quite good. So is never having to memorize Lesser Invest, Wizard Lock, Light, and the like. On top of that, being able to pull out a stack of extra damage that you've been stockpiling when things get hairy is pretty amazing.

I'll grant that Create Scroll may not be particularly high priority early on when you have a lot of other skills to build up, but don't discount it entirely. You'll be missing out on a big part of what makes a well-prepared celestial mage amazing.
 
Figured I would offer some advice- mine may be a bit off kilter, but it's what I think-

Play an earth caster and do not tell anyone you are an earth caster. Still have all the good bind magic, and I think that earth is more useful (especially when noone but your closest allies knows you cast it).

Be wary of packet mixing. Just something to be conscious of. If you think it will be a pain in the neck use Staff instead of bow. I am happy to explain how to get the most use out of Staff skill (with no ritual levels needed).

Go WIIIIIIDDDDE pyramid. More spells equals more casting equals MORE FUN (at least to me). The same hundred build gets you a 4 column or a 10/9/8/6/5/4/3/2/1. That is 48 spells vs. 36. I would rather have 12 more spells per day. Really you trade 1 7th, 2 8th and 3 9th's for 18 spells. A 4 column is par for the course (sadly), but 10 disarms and 9 pins can accomplish some nonsense. Which leads me to my next point...

Use REPEL. It is GREAT and wicked fun. And monsters do not OFTEN resist it, because they think it's not that big of a deal.


So hopefully there is some piece of helpful info in there. Most importantly just choose to HAVE FUN and bring character story and reasons for interacting with the other players.
 
Toddo said:
Not a character build comment, but something to keep in mind with that type of character:

Be very mindful of the color of the packets you're throwing.
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This. I play a Celestial Templar whose only weapon skill is Archery, so it's very similar to your idea. Make sure to keep your blues and whites separate.

It's a fun combat experience being a ranged damage character, but I'd recommend focusing on Archery and profs if you want that as Evocation is kind of weak. As a scholar, I think you'll find you might be more effective as a support mage, especially if you like Bindomancy. Regardless, I'd recommend picking up one or two ranks of blacksmith so that you won't run out until you can join a team or make friends with your local mastersmith.

I don't have any experience with Create Scroll but I can say that it's certainly effective to have a stack on you, especially when facing a sheild wall.
 
ASFDan said:
RiddickDale said:
I wouldn't worry about Create Scroll. You are far better off donating to your chapter and gobbying the max 100 production each weekend to get a bunch of low level scrolls and having them available to you. (magic armor and disarm are amazing and cheap).
Click to expand...

I cannot disagree with this strongly enough. I get far more mileage out of having it than 100 gs per event could provide. The low level spells are quite good. So is never having to memorize Lesser Invest, Wizard Lock, Light, and the like. On top of that, being able to pull out a stack of extra damage that you've been stockpiling when things get hairy is pretty amazing.

I'll grant that Create Scroll may not be particularly high priority early on when you have a lot of other skills to build up, but don't discount it entirely. You'll be missing out on a big part of what makes a well-prepared celestial mage amazing.
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Sure. I'll grant you that. But, we're talking a sub 75 build character. Build spent that early has to be proactive.

He can branch out later when the diversity of skills becomes relevant.
 
IMO, most of the above posts are overthinking your build.

If you want power longevity, go Celestial. You can augment your spells per day with looted scrolls, and wand charges. You have all the bindomancy of Earth.

If you want healing/support/curses, and sometime down the road, Rebirth, go Earth. You'll run out of stuff faster, but you'll live longer and be a bit more self-sufficient. You can handle that with potions, though, if not as efficiently.

You can also go Earth and just pick up Read Magic and one Celestial spell slot, so you can use up to 5th level Scrolls. Won't cost you much if you don't pick a race that has a build penalty.
 
Thanks for all the advice.

If it helps, I'd rather never run out of stuff to do than have more higher level stuff to do. I imagine it would suck hardcore running out of spells and realizing that there's still one more big mod before lunch.

Also I should start this character with about 55 build, so I want to have fun and be effective at that level.
 
I'd do a mix then, you don't need to buy scroll making, but keep an eye out for them, often you can buy a LOT of scrolls from people that pick them up as loot and would rather have coin, some might even be willing to donate them. at 55 build the key is going to be marshalling your bang for the buck as it were. A disarm can vary a lot in effectiveness based on the target, as can bindo-mancy.

Always remember that part of playing a caster is marshalling your resources, if you want to save the day in module #3, you'll have less to burn in module #5.
 
Korvayle said:
Thanks for all the advice.

If it helps, I'd rather never run out of stuff to do than have more higher level stuff to do. I imagine it would suck hardcore running out of spells and realizing that there's still one more big mod before lunch.

Also I should start this character with about 55 build, so I want to have fun and be effective at that level.
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Have you picked a race?
 
Draven said:
Have you picked a race?
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When I made my first character I decided that I never wanted to play a race because I didn't want the roleplaying restrictions. But elf saves me 6 build and elves can have many different types of personalities. So...elf.
 
Korvayle said:
Draven said:
Have you picked a race?
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When I made my first character I decided that I never wanted to play a race because I didn't want the roleplaying restrictions. But elf saves me 6 build and elves can have many different types of personalities. So...elf.
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Just a few thoughts:

1) You have chosen correctly! :D
2) Human is a race, so every PC has a race.
3) The following races don't have very stringent roleplay "restrictions," IMO: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Hobling, Sarr, Wylderkin, High Ogres, High Orcs. So you do have a good number of options (four of which I wouldn't even consider "full-makeup," so there's that too!). The only ones that I'd consider truly limiting are Biata/Barbarian (no Celestial - this sucks for the single reason of Ward), Dark Elves (avoid sunlight), and Stone Elves (as little emotion as possible). The restrictions for Dryad (avoid metal) and MWE (dislike Controlmancy) are easy enough to work around. Lastly, there's Gypsy (Eastern European accent - in most chapters, anyway) and I'd imagine one would get used to speaking like that relatively quickly.
4) Keep in mind that your home chapter will probably have racial history and culture that you'll have to have your character conform to/rebel from/adapt to/somehow interact with no matter what race you play, even human. For example, Barran (Gettysburg) has a group of humans that are obsessed with masks and believe that one's mask defines one's way of life. Also, Deadlands (New Hampshire) has a group of humans that do not use magic at all. Some don't even believe it exists and are so fervent in this belief that they impose their will on reality, causing nearby magic to cease to exist. Both are very RP-heavy PC choices.
 
One thing caught my attention and I would love to see a clarification on it because all the efforts to aid you hinge on this...when you say you want to be effective, how do you measure effective? Do you find yourself faster than, same speed as, or slower than others around you before factoring in stats?

Joe S.
 
Man, Joe, you forgot the most important stat...

Do you consider yourself lazier than the people around you? ;)
 
So I recently permed by character who happened to be an archer Templar with two prof’s a slay, parry, 2 disarms and nearly a full celestial 4 column. I can tell you that there are pro’s and cons for playing an archer and a caster. One big pro is that the bow allows you to be effective pretty much all of the time so long as you carry around a large enough quivers (I carried a couple small ones and had a large double quiver on my back that could legally carry like 400 arrow’s by the rules.) The drawback to that is that it is going to cost you (I was buying and using arrows by the thousands relatively consistently), that is why I initially changed over from a fighter to a Templar, I needed something that I could reliably have as a back up to my arrows which were getting prohibitively expensive. You might also note that depending on the battle and how proficient you are at looting (I was usually too busy trying not to die to loot very much) you may often find that your return on investment may not cover the cost of the arrows you used.
As far as celestial versus earth goes I often wished that I had gone earth because it would have gone a long way towards making me more self sufficient and all around useful. It still allows you to use Bindomancy and watnot and you are able to heal yourself, use first aid, and get other people up when you need them up. I found that at least in Seattle, a very high APL game, that the boom spells for celestial are really not that useful, they typically ended up just blowing one of the baddie’s dumb defenses and not having any major effect; whereas an equivalent earth spell could heal one of your more formidable allies a decent amount and allow for a lot more utility. Also, when you are actively trying to hit enemies with spells you are usually moving towards them without knowing it and often you will find yourself needing to block a lot of sword swings because you’ve gotten too close. So If I had it to do all over again I would have built an Earth Templar with a good sized pyramid and two profs, no wasting build on per day weapon skills and tons of curatives and other useful earth/ general spells.
 
Simon said:
One thing caught my attention and I would love to see a clarification on it because all the efforts to aid you hinge on this...when you say you want to be effective, how do you measure effective? Do you find yourself faster than, same speed as, or slower than others around you before factoring in stats?

Joe S.
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In terms of physicality? I'm 300 pounds, but some of that is muscle. I'd say slightly slower than others.

I guess my main priorities are:
1. Not completely emptying my column/pyramid when there are still two or three mods left before logistics (one mod before is fine).
2. Having something to do when I want to conserve my spells (this is why I took archery).
3. Having something to do when I don't feel comfortable going toe to toe with the 2h barbarian swinging 10.
(I decided that even if I go celestial, I'm taking healing arts and first aid just so I can stop people's dying counts.)

Does that answer your question?
 
Korvayle said:
(I decided that even if I go celestial, I'm taking healing arts and first aid just so I can stop people's dying counts.)
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I just want to note that Healing Arts is not required to stop dying counts. I feel that its usefulness would be worth the build spent for you, but it is not a pre-req to First Aid and is not required in order to use the First Aid skill in-game.

-Luke
 
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