hide, spot, listen, move silently?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

Are these skills really worth anything? Every time I click the
"Recommended" button, my points usually get put in some of these, so I
stopped using the recommended allocation. It just seems like these
skills never really come into play during the game. I don't sneak
around, and Spot and Listen don't seem to be a factor. Is there
something I'm missing?

I just tried out the "Novice to Epic Hero Maker" module and I made a
monk. All the recommended skills were in these categories, so I changed
it and I was wondering what you all thought of a monk who trains in
these skills at every level:

Discipline
Heal
Parry
Tumble
Lore/Persuade (maybe alternate, or maybe not Lore at all)

I like Search, but it isn't a class skill for a monk. 🙁

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

John Salerno wrote:
> Are these skills really worth anything? Every time I click the
> "Recommended" button, my points usually get put in some of these, so
> I stopped using the recommended allocation. It just seems like these
> skills never really come into play during the game. I don't sneak
> around, and Spot and Listen don't seem to be a factor. Is there
> something I'm missing?

Depends upon the module. I have found Hide and Move Silently very
useful in some rogue oriented modules.

- W. Citoan
--
My center is giving way, my right is in retreat, situation excellent. I
attack!
-- [General] Ferdinand Foch

 

[Vellu]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

John Salerno kirjoitti:
> Are these skills really worth anything? Every time I click the
> "Recommended" button, my points usually get put in some of these, so I
> stopped using the recommended allocation. It just seems like these
> skills never really come into play during the game. I don't sneak
> around, and Spot and Listen don't seem to be a factor. Is there
> something I'm missing?
>
> I just tried out the "Novice to Epic Hero Maker" module and I made a
> monk. All the recommended skills were in these categories, so I changed
> it and I was wondering what you all thought of a monk who trains in
> these skills at every level:
>
> Discipline
> Heal
> Parry
> Tumble
> Lore/Persuade (maybe alternate, or maybe not Lore at all)
>
> I like Search, but it isn't a class skill for a monk. 🙁

Parry is absolutely useless (needs to be selected to use, tons of points
needed to be useful, direct assault is a heck of lot better anyway).
Others are ok.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

vellu wrote:

>
> Parry is absolutely useless (needs to be selected to use, tons of points
> needed to be useful, direct assault is a heck of lot better anyway).
> Others are ok.

I was wondering about that. Sort of the same reason I don't like
Hide/Move Silently, I just prefer to attack.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

John Salerno wrote:
> vellu wrote:
>
>>
>> Parry is absolutely useless (needs to be selected to use, tons of
>> points needed to be useful, direct assault is a heck of lot better
>> anyway). Others are ok.
>
>
> I was wondering about that. Sort of the same reason I don't like
> Hide/Move Silently, I just prefer to attack.

Having a character with good stealth skills for scouting is invaluable
in multiplayer in many modules. In singleplayer, it's rarely useful
unless the module is specifically designed to include situations that
can be resolved through stealth. A fair number of modules do include
such situations, however.

Listen and Spot are rarely useful, unless a module includes scripting
that specifically checks against those skills. They're supposed to be
counters to stealth skills, but only in multiplayer PvP scenarios is
that relevant -- AI will just attack once you've been spotted.

Lore is mostly used to identify items -- nearly useless, in other words
-- but some modules will feature Lore checks to let you learn more
information.

Persuade is only useful if it's scripted -- but it's *very* common to
script in Persuade checks in dialogues with NPCs.

Heal's very useful, as a bonus to your ability to heal with healing kits.

Parry is almost completely useless. If you build a character entirely
around the parry skill, it's almost okay. But even then, you'd get
better results with Expertise and Improved Expertise, which still allow
you to be active rather than passive, with the same general concept of
trading AB for AC.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

Brian G. Vaughan wrote:

> Lore is mostly used to identify items -- nearly useless, in other words
> -- but some modules will feature Lore checks to let you learn more
> information.

I don't think I agree with that. My wizard in NWN was able to identify
everything he found, but now that I'm playing a non-magic character, I
find the lack of Lore to be frustrating. There are tons of magic items
in the game, and it's nice to be able to identify them immediately
rather than pay for it, or buy potions of Lore. Right now I am starting
to put more points in my Lore skill for my ranger, because I want to
identify items on my own, but also because there really aren't too many
other skills I need to increase. The four I mentioned here in this post
are very useful, neither is Concentration or Animal Empathy, now that
I've become an Arcane Archer. All I still train in is Heal. I'd like to
do Stealth, but it's no longer a class skill.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

John Salerno wrote:

> I'd like to
> do Stealth, but it's no longer a class skill.

I mean Search.