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Playtested? or not shifter build for HoTU
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 12:13 pm
by Claudius
Anybody have a build or remember how to build a shifter?
Note: there is no way for 40 levels iirc in HoTU as there is not enough experience points.
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 2:33 pm
by Darth Gavinius
Well you have to be a Druid and have the wildshape feat. To be honest, I have never really found the Shifter to be that worthwhile as you need to cast all your buffs before you shift, and the shifted forms are only useful in combat - it would have been more useful an addition to SOU rather than HOTU. If you take shifter once you are already a lvl 15 Druid - the Shifter abilities are seriously weak compared to your own spells.
Since the shifter is still a Druid, focus on high Wisdom and Constitution. I can't remember which feats are still useful when shifted - but I imagine improved unarmed strike might be useful, rather than a focus towards traditional Druid weapons. Building from scratch I would take the shifter feat as early as possible and then alternate between shifter and druid. Taking 2/3 levels in Ranger, Fighter or Monk may also give you improvements in combat when shifted. In the end a lot of the shifter abilities pale in comparison to the epic level feat Dragon Form (WIS 30, LVL 21).
You are right about the XP. From what I remember a character imported from SOU only gets to about lvl 35 or 36 and a character imported from the OC gets to about LVL 38. I never tried any of them but there were some fan-made bridging modules between SOU and HOTU (part of a NWNVault competition) if you were planning a thorough playthrough with a Shifter Character - one of these might make up the XP shortfall. The brief behind these was to create a backstory about the shadow plane and the relic of the reaper.
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 3:18 pm
by Claudius
Thanks! I mainly wanted to try HotU so maybe I will have to assign xp via the console or else make another run through the OC..
Maybe Druid 6 Barbarian 6 shifter 8 (then x epic), with the reasoning of the split being to get 16 BAB in pre-epic. A lot of HP and rage from barbarian. Constitution actually is wiped out by shape.
Probably Human for the feat and dump stats in WIS to achieve more shapes. Or maybe elf for circle kick dex and keen senses??
I found a guide very detailed about shapes and equipment merging etc.. But it said nothing about recommended build examples.