Favourite special ability?

Disco Stew · Post by **Disco Stew** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:16 am

What's your favourite special ability in ToB?

I like Greater Whirlwind

and Summon Planetar

. Dragon's Breath and Improved Alacrity can make for some really cool combos when used with certain spells(cough*timestop*cough) as well

u?

rapier · Post by **rapier** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:37 am

Hmn, they are almost all good and powerful, except, IMO, War Cry, Death Blow(Greater) and Magic Flute...

Stoner Cold · Post by **Stoner Cold** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:42 am

why is war cry so good?
greater whirlwind is good, as is critical strike, and the dragon's breath, imprved alacrity and ill timestop combo. wow, overkill or what?

two · Post by **two** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:46 am

A couple of them truly bite the big smelly something.

Check this out: magic flute has been mentioned. It's so impossibly lame I have difficulty describing it.

The "mix potion" ability is so putridly stupid I can't even talk about it. Remember, these "abilities" are on the same level as things like "Time Trap" etc. I mean, there is NO comparison. Would you rather mix up a nice "oil of speed" or would you like to get a trap that can make killing a dragon trivially easy? Uh...I'll take the "oil of speed," maybe that will compliment the 3 or 4 boots of speed I already have. I mean, major DUH here!

There are a few other ridiculously bad ones available to bards, but I have actually forgotten what they are called, as they reekethed so. Pee-yew!

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 11:46 am

Aura of flaming death and globe of blades will turn cleric into a cruise missle, make sure ot keep your other party members far away, just ade in and start whacking!

Planetars are the coolest spells for my sorc, but I am reluctant to use it much, cause Ssummoning an angelic avatar to take care of some trolls is not right. I will use them aaisnt demons, I mean thats what they're for, but not much else.
I was shcked when in darnise hold 6 umber hulks mobbed a planetar and killed it!

Implosion is cool, just looks cool.

and I have a special fondess for greater elemental trnasorm because jaheira does not need a spell slot for that one, it comes as a special ability, and with greater whirlwind it rocks.

Greater whirlwind is the real kicker, tho. Except for creatures immune to vorpal effects, greater whilrwind +vorpal weapon = instant cheap kill.

Dragons are immune, unfortunately, but they still take massive damage. In my last watchers, I had my sorc soften up the dragon under time stop and greater acuity, then savarok whaled on it a while and it died.

Even tho I got the white ghost effect, which mean the vorpal effect activated, it was still breathing, but took enough damage from the greater whirlwind to kick the bucket.

I really think the fighters got what they needed the most with greater whirlwind. That ability makes tanks into pure killing machines.

Mages are already high ability, and dragon breath and comet are nice, especially short casting time, but not drop dead super. summon planetars used the way designed is great, but you only get one.

Project image and summon 6! Took care of demogorgon without a scratch!

Clerics got jipped. good summon, storm of vengence is nice for the area effect poison, implosion is not htat effective, to my experience, and devas are not as good as planetars.

druids got non-spell slot elemental transform and greater elemental summon is really cool. I Think this makes jaheira a killer combo with greater whirlwind and elemental transform as fire elemental!

Thieves have got it killer with spike traps.

Bards go jipped, no bard special ablity except stinking magic flute, but who cares about them? I have never had a bard in my party and never will.

(oh crap, I will get so flamed for that one!)

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 12:07 pm

Greater Wirlwind Attack is the best ability...It gives fighters back the dominance that they had at low levels and is absolutely critical in nasty fights.

Improved alacrity is second, the mage with amulet of power/robe of vecna/autopause after spell is cast is the perfect counterpart to the fighter with Wirlwind activated - essentially the time frame of the game moves from 6 seconds per action to 1/2 second per action, which is necessary to deal with crazy boss fights.

In comparison to fighters and mages, clerics, druids and thieves look like they're moving in slow motion during big fights. It's too bad there's not some version of alacrity for clerics! Combine that with the fact that pure class clerics don't have triggers or sequencers, AND they run out of abilities to take at 30th level (5.75 mil experience) and it looks like they really did get gypped, user...I guess we have to have multiclass fighter/ or mage/ -clerics.

tomberry · Post by **tomberry** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 12:09 pm

the use anyitem ability for my kensi/theif. its worse than cheating and the origional cloak of mirroring combined.

Meerlight · Post by **Meerlight** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 12:27 pm

Smite just plain ROCKS for fighters!! As for bards and thieves getting bad abilities; ARE YOU CRAZY!!!! They get Use any Item (use scrolls, figiurines, wands, Crom Faeyr and so on) they also get traps (time trap and spike trap kill EVERYTHING!) Bards get improved bard song (-10 ac on the bard, -4 ac,+4 to hit,+4 to damage on allies, immunity to normal weapons on allies, immunity to fear, stun and confusion and +5% MR on allies

) Thieves get Assassination! (assassins: this is the most powerful attack ever). Clerics got incredibly good abilities with Globe of blades and Aura of Fire (I dare something to attack) and they get a holy symbol. Mages get Energy blades/dragons breath/improved alacrity and extra spells which are very good too. Fighters are still good because of Whirlwind and Smite and Hardiness. Druids also got a little better with the transformations that don't take spell slots.

Now for useless abilities: Tracking!!! War Cry, Deathblows, Avoid Death, Mix Potion and Scribe scrolls.

rapier · Post by **rapier** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 12:47 pm

Tracking is a fun-ability, and not THAT useless, coz it shows you what to expect and the general location...

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 1:07 pm

Use any item is nice, but it doesn't up the number of attacks. assassination is good, but many of the nastiest enemies in TOB are immune to backstabs, and the number of attacks doesn't go up. In the roughest battles, time is so important that for clerics taking 6 seconds to cast a spell is like an eternity.

Edit/ I agree that the special traps are uber-nasty, and people have said that the bosses all die from traps, but I personally don't like traps and don't really ever use them, because the fun for me is in the fighting, not setting a bunch of traps and then watching a villain appear and die instantly /// if that is fun to you, than special traps rule and give a thief an ability they can take over and over again.

[ 09-04-2001: Message edited by: THE JAKER ]

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 1:33 pm

As for smite, ring of ram and staff of ram!

Greater whrilwind is like timestop for fighters, but works every time, better than timestop.

As for tracking, I've never used it, but it sounds like a directional detect evil. ok for a 2nd level mage spell, but as s special ability?!?!
I have to kinda agree and disagree with jaker. I love traps, but rarely use them. twisted rune and lvl five of watchers come to mind, I love imagining the faces of the liches and the heart seal crew as they jump into hell, but since I hate Jan, I take imoen along, for those few times when traps are the best way to clear out an area, I use project image and a lot of delayed action fireballs and skull traps. more work, and you have to be more careful, but much more satisfying when you look at the work after a hard few minutes of trap casting.

Say, if you had anoweenie along and passed the palafin test, or have played paladin chavalier kit, what special abilities do you get at 20th level? Can't be the cleric spells, since paladins cap out on cleric spells. do you get summon deva like keldorn?

Paladins get jipped in the game, since the fighter cleric multi is much more powerful...can you see globe of death, globe of blades, greater whirlwind and staff of ram?

Forget smite or even edged weapons, a globe has almost all the benefits of vorpal weapons and lasts longer than whirlwind!

nael · Post by **nael** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 1:46 pm

greater whirlwind, use any item, implosion. and dragon's breath are my favorites for each pool of abilities

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 2:54 pm

I got it!

Mix potions is no so bad, because you get to use up those stinking empty potion bottles from the slaver lords!

Right?

NAAAA

it still just stinks!

Especially with potion cases and all the great potions you find all over the place.

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 3:18 pm

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly:
<STRONG>Say, if you had anoweenie along and passed the palafin test what special abilities do you get at 20th level? Can't be the cleric spells, since paladins cap out on cleric spells. do you get summon deva like keldorn?</STRONG>

Anomen is still just a fighter dual cleric even if he passes his test. he gets the regular cleric special abilities, which appear on his 7th level spell page, so essentially all he gets is access to more 7th level spells, which is nice, but not THAT great. (He has a 19 STR when he gets his holy symbol which is pretty cool)

I find him falling back into more of a support role as you get deeper into TOB, his lack of whirlwinds or fast spells means fighters and mages take over more, But his resurrections, raise deads, heals and greater restores are very useful and he has a lot of them.

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:01 pm

Jake, Anoweenie is dual class, not multi?

The multi classes rule in TOB, dual in SOA, and I've mentied before just how evil the multiclass cleric anything is.

But if anomne is dual class, forget it! No want him anyway. I was actually thinking of taking him along my next party, if only for having viccy and korgan say really mean things to him.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:22 pm

Use Any Items: the best ability by far. And the fact that thieves/bards get it is even more of a joke.