Looking for some help on Cmans and armor spec after coming back from a long hiatus.
(at level 40), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 172 72
Shield Use.........................| 140 40
Combat Maneuvers...................| 150 50
Edged Weapons......................| 184 84
Ambush.............................| 180 80
Physical Fitness...................| 141 41
Dodging............................| 182 82
Arcane Symbols.....................| 78 17
Magic Item Use.....................| 30 6
Harness Power......................| 10 2
Disarming Traps....................| 185 85
Picking Locks......................| 188 88
Stalking and Hiding................| 184 84
Perception.........................| 182 82
Climbing...........................| 93 21
Swimming...........................| 70 15
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 4
I'm currently in metal breastplate. I guess first real question I have is whether or not skills like evasion mastery and others have made leather the common choice now. I still see a lot of benefit to the higher armor (You will eventually get hit, evasion can't dodge CS spells but CvA is a benefit in plate, etc.) but it seems like a lot of commonly lauded skills are negated by heavy armor now. What's status quo these days, folks still wear plate or not so much?
For instance, armor mastery. I assume being in plate that armored evasion is the way to go? The way I'm reading the formula for armor stealth I would get 0 benefit in plate because of the multiplication against the (5-(armor subgroup)) which I think is 5 for plate.
Any recommendations as well in terms of cmans? Vanish seems like the obvious choice, but I'm not sure how much the plate will hinder me there. Any advice? If it's not too bad I imagine i'll go vanish and divert, maybe round remaining points (if any) off to the strength cman or the sneak mastery talent.
BOWERSJ
PFLATS
Re: Cman Assistance
07/15/2016 08:37 AM CDT
You need rank 4 Shadow Mastery before you can even learn Vanish, so that's not much of a choice if you're learning Vanish. While I haven't played a plate rogue, I'd say you should go for Vanish regardless. If you use it, fail, and die, you were gonna die anyway.
Learning at least rank 2 of Vanish will use up most of your CM points. Learning all 3 ranks of Vanish will leave enough room for 2 ranks of Divert, if my calculations are correct.
On the topic of armor, if wearing plate isn't essential to your RP, I'd throw it in your locker for a while, and use some of those armor TPs somewhere else for a while. 72 ranks hasn't fully trained off the maneuver penalty yet (that's at 80) and plate gives a serious hindrance to stealth. It helps when you get targeted by an attack or spell, but you know what's better than that? Not getting seen at all.
Learning at least rank 2 of Vanish will use up most of your CM points. Learning all 3 ranks of Vanish will leave enough room for 2 ranks of Divert, if my calculations are correct.
On the topic of armor, if wearing plate isn't essential to your RP, I'd throw it in your locker for a while, and use some of those armor TPs somewhere else for a while. 72 ranks hasn't fully trained off the maneuver penalty yet (that's at 80) and plate gives a serious hindrance to stealth. It helps when you get targeted by an attack or spell, but you know what's better than that? Not getting seen at all.
RATHBONER
Re: Cman Assistance
07/15/2016 10:28 AM CDT
Vanish. Full mastery and full vanish almost as soon as you can get them. The last rank is expensive but I reckon the gain from it is well worth having.
Divert is a nice RP tool thats well worth a rank for that reason, but even with full training I never found it had a good enough success rate like level to be worth training. It also doesn't work in some particularly annoying circumstances (flying critters can spot me in hiding when I'm supposedly too far away to be able to divert them)
I also agree with lockering the plate. (Mine mostly stays there even with 100 ranks). I keep with chain for CvA reasons, vanish would work better with lighter armor, but not well enough that I feel I can give up the CvA yet. With enough spells, I might drop to leather for normal use and switch to stealth, but with chain I reckon evasion is the one to have.
Non-halflings may well have different opinions though.
Divert is a nice RP tool thats well worth a rank for that reason, but even with full training I never found it had a good enough success rate like level to be worth training. It also doesn't work in some particularly annoying circumstances (flying critters can spot me in hiding when I'm supposedly too far away to be able to divert them)
I also agree with lockering the plate. (Mine mostly stays there even with 100 ranks). I keep with chain for CvA reasons, vanish would work better with lighter armor, but not well enough that I feel I can give up the CvA yet. With enough spells, I might drop to leather for normal use and switch to stealth, but with chain I reckon evasion is the one to have.
Non-halflings may well have different opinions though.
VERSIN
Re: Cman Assistance
07/15/2016 02:12 PM CDT
My rule of thumb is brig/stealth for stealth-oriented combat and MBP/evasion for open combat. Vanish is the best thing about being a rogue, especially if you are stealth oriented.
BOWERSJ
Re: Cman Assistance
07/15/2016 06:06 PM CDT
Thanks for the assist all. Any recommendations for how to spend the left over points if I drop off armor? Would upping PF to 2x be useful to compensate for loss of plate, or not enough to be worth it? Otherwise I may just pump up lockpick and can. Any other advice? Thanks again.
OM1E5GA
Re: Cman Assistance
07/15/2016 08:00 PM CDT
<Would upping PF to 2x be useful to compensate for loss of plate, or not enough to be worth it? Otherwise I may just pump up lockpick and can.>
PF is always a good place to put spare TPs when in doubt, even if only for more stamina. I don't know to what degree it will help your DFRedux, but I would assume going from 1x to 2x would make a noticeable difference.
As far as using the TPs to increase your lockpicking abilities, that really depends on what your goals are with lockpicking. Since you already have the lores, you shouldn't have any trouble picking all your own boxes for quite a while, though once you get to minotaurs you'll start having difficulties. If you're still working through Lock Mastery, you'll also have an easier time finding boxes you can get reps off of with your skills where they are. So, if you're picking for the public regularly the more you can put into picking skills the better, but if you're just picking your own boxes you'd be better off putting those TPs elsewhere until you get another 30 levels or so under your belt.
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
PF is always a good place to put spare TPs when in doubt, even if only for more stamina. I don't know to what degree it will help your DFRedux, but I would assume going from 1x to 2x would make a noticeable difference.
As far as using the TPs to increase your lockpicking abilities, that really depends on what your goals are with lockpicking. Since you already have the lores, you shouldn't have any trouble picking all your own boxes for quite a while, though once you get to minotaurs you'll start having difficulties. If you're still working through Lock Mastery, you'll also have an easier time finding boxes you can get reps off of with your skills where they are. So, if you're picking for the public regularly the more you can put into picking skills the better, but if you're just picking your own boxes you'd be better off putting those TPs elsewhere until you get another 30 levels or so under your belt.
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
COSTELLOK
Re: Cman Assistance
07/15/2016 10:34 PM CDT
Maybe put some of it into increasing Combat Maneuvers. I think 1.5x is pretty common for rogues, with many people closer to 2x.
Another maneuver I'd recommend as a get-out-of-jail free card is 2 ranks of Combat Mobility.
Fyonn's player
Another maneuver I'd recommend as a get-out-of-jail free card is 2 ranks of Combat Mobility.
Fyonn's player
